


Flaw In My Code

by liziscribbles



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android Discrimination, Detroit: Become Human Fusion, Drug Use, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Sci-Fi, Ships aren't mentioned until later, Viva La Robolution
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 02:31:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 54,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14990831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liziscribbles/pseuds/liziscribbles
Summary: Follow the stories of Noctis, Ignis, and Lunafreya, three androids of different means and backgrounds, as they deal with existing in a society that isn't always friendly to their kind.{ Detroit: Become Human fusion! }





	1. Normal

**Author's Note:**

> **THIS FIC DEALS WITH SOME POTENTIALLY HEAVY THEMES AT SOME POINTS.**  
>  If you can't handle mentions and observations of child abuse, drug use, or discrimination, PLEASE don't read. I don't want to trigger anyone.
> 
>  **THIS FIC LOOSELY FOLLOWS THE PLOT OF DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN.**  
>  If you haven't played, and are worried about being spoiled for certain aspects, please don't continue until you've at least watched a playthrough! ♥

_Time: 0945_  
_Schedule: Wake Regis before 1000. Breakfast and medicine by 1030. Start work at 1100 Work until 1400. Late lunch at 1400 until 1430. Work until 1700. Dinner meeting at Caeno: Insomnia at 1900. Home by 2200. Night medicine by 2230. Bed by 0000._

Noctis placed the heated cover on top of Regis' tray, and moved it out to the dining room. Before he went up the stairs to wake Regis for the day, he turned and pressed the small button on the wall to open the shades in the room. With the room optimally lit for adequate vitamin D absorption, Noctis turned and headed up the stairs so Regis could finally start his day.

The sound of birds chirping and squirrels chattering outside the window caught Noctis' attention, and pulled forth a file in his memory banks. Years ago, Regis told him natural sounds, like those of chattering animals and chirping birds, helped stir his creativity. Since, until dinner, so much of Regis' day was to be spent playing piano and working on music, perhaps Noctis could open the window to assist him. Whether or not the birds and squirrels _truly_ stirred his creativity, Regis thought they did, and that was what was important.

Moving toward the window, Noctis undid the latch and pushed it open. It was a mild day out; the sun was shining and the temperature was just starting to rise. A quick search revealed the temperature was only going to top out at 75º Fahrenheit, which meant even at the day's hottest, Regis would still be comfortable.

With that in mind, Noctis hit a small panel next to the door, opening all of the windows in the hallway and dining area. Then, he finished ascending the stairs toward Regis' room to wake him.

Sure enough, Regis slept soundly in his completely darkened room and Noctis’ lips curled up into a half-smile. Just as expected. _"Ah, Noctis,"_ Regis told him once, _"If only you could understand the true beauty that is a good night's rest. You wouldn't blame me for wanting a few extra hours here and there. I've no doubt that if you could, you'd sleep all day."_

Quietly, so not to jar Regis from his sleep too quickly, Noctis made his way across the room and gathered the walking cane from where he'd left it the night prior. Then, he took two steps to the left and slowly drew the curtains open, bathing the whole bedroom in the bright morning sun. Behind him, he heard the telltale sounds of Regis stirring. The bedding rustled and he heard murmuring grumbles of disapproval coming from _underneath_ layers of said bedding. A couple more seconds of continued groaning passed, and then Regis finally spoke up.

"Noctis, have we not discussed you finding a more pleasant wake-up call than rendering me blind?"

"It still works the best, Regis," Noctis mused in reply as he turned around and headed for the bed.

Leaning the walking cane against the bedside table, Noctis instantly opened the top drawer and rooted around inside for the multicolored pill case, which housed Regis' morning dose of painkillers and blood pressure medication. On top of the nightstand sat last night's glass of water, and a brief analysis showed traces of dander from at least two house flies on the brim, so Noctis retrieved it and went to the bathroom to refill it. As he walked, he made a quick order for some fly traps. Two flies wasn't exactly an epidemic, but Noctis knew Regis would prefer it not to get to that point.

Through the open bathroom door, Regis' groggy, half-awake voice carried from the bed. "I don't suppose I can talk you into telling Clarus I've passed on, so I don't have to meet at Caeno tonight?"

"No, Regis," Noctis replied, turning the faucet to the precise temperature Regis preferred his drinking water. "I'm pretty sure you don't really _want_ to tell him you're dead either, since you want to put more music out just as much as Mr. Amicitia wants you to."

A sigh. "Noctis. Clarus will never forgive me if you call him Mr. Amicitia in person, you realize this," Regis pointed out, a slightly bemused tone in his voice.

The tone dictated a little bit of conspiration, and while Noctis' model wasn't designed to play along with things, or even really have thoughts beyond the willingness to comply with orders, Regis had insisted multiple times that it was okay. At first, it was a little bit of a struggle. His code wasn't written for humor or witty thinking. It _was_ , however, built to obey Regis' orders and provide care as best he could. Sometimes—especially with a man as stubborn as Regis—that meant listening to orders which conflicted with his programming. Regis encouraged him to take on human characteristics, and Regis' orders superseded his programming.

"Which is all the more reason to do it," Noctis answered as he stepped out of the bathroom and brought Regis the glass of water.

A smirk crossed Regis' face as he downed his pills and drank half of the glass of water in one go. "My thoughts exactly, Noctis. The man tends to do his best work when he's annoyed anyway, so perhaps with your assistance, he'll be able to get me an even better royalty deal from that blasted television station," he mused, reaching down to the side of his bed for his walking cane.

"Let me-"

Regis shook his head. "I'll not have you doing every single thing for me, Noctis. I'm hardly a frail old man who can't handle walking himself to the closet and picking his own clothing," he spoke, his tone a little bit snappy.

Lately, Noctis had been noticing a few more instances like that. Times when Regis, despite his body's protests and stresses, seemed to be intent on carrying out certain tasks for himself. Noctis picked up a ten percent tense in his leg muscles every time he stood, and his back muscles tensed even more. Still, each time Noctis tried to assert himself and insist on selecting clothing beforehand or being a walking crutch, Regis resisted. Human pride was how he explained it, but Noctis' searches always told him how humans seemed to value self-preservation beyond all else, so it didn't make much sense for him to be so determined not to listen to reason.

While Regis walked slowly—about .2 percent slower than yesterday, Noctis noted—toward his wardrobe, Noctis busied himself with tidying the bedside table instead. Old pill bottles went into the trash, notes on ideas for songs went into a small pile in the corner of the table, near the bed for easy access. The bed itself, he stripped with the intent to wash the bed sheets and replace them with newer, cleaner ones.

From the bathroom, he heard the shower water running. Shortly thereafter, Regis made a grunting noise and Noctis walked closer to the door, standing on the other side and placed his hand on the handle. "Do you need assistance, Regis?"

"No, Noctis. I'm simply not as nimble as I used to be," Regis answered. "I assure you, I am fully capable of showering on my own." Seconds later, all Noctis could hear was the sound of the faucet echoing throughout the room.

Noctis stayed there for a couple more seconds, just in case Regis changed his mind, and then went back to the bed to resume his task. It had been a week and a half since they'd changed the sheets, and the bacteria and dead skin cells were nearing a dangerous level. Regis would likely tell him to 'ease up,' but Noctis' programming wouldn't allow him to take chances like that.

Regis wanted him to 'ease up' in situations like this, so it should have been simple to allow himself to put the dirty sheets in the laundry chute and gather new ones from the hall closet. However, he was hesitant to leave Regis unassisted with his morning routine. It wasn't far to the hall closet, and the laundry chute was right outside the room, so Noctis decided to follow Regis' orders instead of what his programming was telling him to do. It was a bit of an unpleasant jolt, disobeying like that, but it had been happening more frequently lately, so it was less jarring than it used to be.

One by one, the pillowcases, sheets, and blankets went into the laundry chute, and then Noctis turned his attention toward the linen closet to gather more, all the while listening for any telltale signs of distress coming from the other room.

He gathered a towel—since his memory banks confirmed he hadn't placed one there the night before when he was cleaning—and Regis' favorite black bedding set, then turned back toward the bedroom. He set the towel off to the side until Regis asked for it, then continued to make the bed again. Halfway through, as he tucked the gray microfleece blanket into the sides of the bed, he heard the door creak open.

"Ah, Noctis," Regis called. Noctis turned, to see Regis' dripping wet face peering through a crack in the door. "Could I trouble you for a towel, son?"

A smile crossed Noctis' face unbidden, and he nodded once, gathering the towel from the black oaken credenza and bringing it to the bathroom door. "I thought I did it last night, but-

Regis waved the apology off, before grabbing the towel with the same hand. "Think nothing of it. Everyone forgets things once in awhile," he insisted, before disappearing behind the door again.

It was a little bit strange, how human Regis treated him, but very expected of someone like him. He was a kind man, a man who believed in equality and liked to see everyone treated fairly and kindly; human or machine. It was a stark contrast to some of the things Noctis had seen around Insomnia. Protests, people calling for the ban and destruction of all androids; people treating their android companions like nothing more than slaves. Just yesterday, when he was in town doing Regis' grocery shopping, he'd seen a man yelling at his android for a simple computation error.

Regis always called such events atrocities, and made sure Noctis never stood for it when people mistreated him. His programming didn't allow him to fight back, and thus far, he'd been fortunate enough to avoid such things happening to him, so he didn't foresee any software conflicts like that happening in his future.

With the bed made, Noctis set to tidying the rest of the room while he waited for Regis to finish his shower. He paused in front of the mirror, glancing at himself and then down at a photo of Regis when he was younger. A long time ago, he'd heard Regis telling Clarus he'd had Noctis designed to look like a son, since his wife had died before he'd ever been able to have children. Clarus had seemed to understand. In fact, Clarus himself had done the same thing several months later with his own androids.

When Clarus' androids popped into Noctis' mind, he searched the local news outlets for any information on Gladiolus and Iris, who had been missing for a few weeks now. Missing androids tended to be ignored in favor of missing persons, so it wasn't much of a surprise when nothing came back. Instead, Noctis looked back at the mirror, at his reflection, and then down at the photo of Regis with his late wife Aulea. Noctis' appearance was about seventy-five percent Aulea—eyes, hair color, skin color—and twenty-five percent Regis. Things like his facial structure looked similar to Regis', as well as his physical stature. He wouldn't grow to be a tall, formerly muscular man like Regis was a decade ago, but he had the physical stature Regis had at his apparent age.

Noctis didn't understand the meaning behind it, nor did he understand the small smile that spread across his face as he looked back at his visage in the mirror. Quickly he trained his expression back to neutrality, set the photo back down, and continued tidying the room while he waited for Regis to return.

Seconds later, Regis stepped out of the bathroom in new clothing for the day, looked at the clean room, and smiled at Noctis. "I should have known you wouldn't just relax and read," he mused.

"I don't need to relax like you do, Regis," Noctis insisted.

Regis sighed. "Yes, I know, Noctis. It's good for the soul, though," he pointed out.

Conversation continued as they made their way down the stairs and to the kitchen. Once more, Regis refused to allow Noctis to help him down the stairs, and even _still_ refused to use the chair machine Noctis had attached to the stairs for him, so the trip down the stairs took significantly longer than if he had allowed Noctis to help. Still, Noctis took his time, walking just ahead of Regis in case he fell.

As they walked, Regis asked Noctis about his schedule and what things could be moved around to make room for breaks and a chance to perhaps walk to the park or watch a movie or simply read for a little while. Nothing could be moved, of course, and Regis protested that a bit, but in the end, he agreed, and ultimately acknowledged that Noctis was only looking out for him.

They made it down without incident, and with Noctis managing to convince Regis to keep his schedule as it was and assuring him he could take time to rest tomorrow.

"Sometimes, I swear you're stricter than a nurse," Regis chuckled fondly as he lowered himself down into his chair and glanced at the small breakfast tray in front of him. Before Noctis could take care of setting it up for him, he lifted the top himself and smiled at the food before him. "One of these days, I fully expect for you to get everything wrong just to prank me. Burned toast, undercooked bacon, eggs over hard... I would likely deserve it for the hell I put you through."

Noctis looked at him in question. "That would conflict pretty strongly with my programming, Regis," he pointed out.

With a laugh, Regis nodded his head and sighed softly. "I suppose it would," he mused as he poured himself a glass of orange juice. "You'd likely only do it if I ordered you to, and I'm not _quite_ so determined to be pranked." He laughed softly and looked up at Noctis.

Regis wasn't eating yet. "Is something the matter with your meal, Regis?" Noctis asked.

"Other than the fact that you're trying to watch me while I eat it? Absolutely nothing," Regis joked. "Why don't you find something to do while you wait? Read, or draw, or watch television?"

Noctis glanced over his shoulder, across the dining room and into the small living area, which spread out before Regis' studio. "Okay," he answered, before turning on his heel and walking across the living room.

He stopped when he came to a small sketchpad. Regis bought it for him a few months ago, in an attempt to encourage him to learn to draw. Noctis, for his part, had looked up every single online tutorial, so he could best do as he was told. He didn't have the human needs to learn the proper lines or curves, and the sketchbook was filled with life drawings. Drawings of Regis, of birds and squirrels and other critters, of the bookshelves and the art on the walls and of Noctis himself. Regis liked to call them grayscale mockings of humanity; close to life, but not quite the real thing.

Truth be told, Noctis didn't know what that meant, but he figured if he practiced more, he could figure it out.

So, he turned the page in the sketchbook and started another drawing. His eyes darted around the room, trying to find a suitable subject, and settled on the large painting of the nearby park, which Regis had done when he was much younger. Noctis obviously couldn't flawlessly recreate the painting with just a pencil, but at the very least, he could draw the outline of it. From the gazebos to the towering redwood in the center of the park, the branches of which reached as high as the highest Insomnian skyscraper, Noctis recreated the outline of the painting. People walked the streets, birds flew overhead, a small squirrel stood at the bottom of the tree and watched everything happen. All scaled perfectly to fit on the page in their appropriate size.

Noctis looked up when he heard the clicking of the mahogany cane on the floor, and saw Regis glancing back down at the sketch.

"Another flawless recreation," Regis offered, though his tone didn't hold the softness it typically did. He sounded almost exasperated. The slight wrinkle in his brow and the curve of his frown only served to confirm as much to Noctis.

Noctis nodded once. "Yeah, I-"

Before Noctis could continue, Regis shook his head and made a thoughtful sound in his throat. "Yes, it's a fine recreation, Noctis. I've been trying to tell you for months now though to make your sketches yours. Put your individual spin on them, instead of just re-creating things from life. It's fine, drawing squirrels and people and buildings. There's nothing wrong with it, of course. What I would like though, is to see how _you_ see things."

"You know my programming doesn't-"

Once again, Regis cut him off. "This isn't about programming, Noctis. I know you think differently from how I do, but you still think. Things still affect you, do they not?" he asked.

"I-"

"Come with me, Noctis," Regis insisted. "To the studio, so I can practice and you can consider what I've just told you. Perhaps inspiration will strike you, and we can bring more than just recreations and standard buildings, birds, and people out of you."

Over the course of the two years Noctis had been in Regis' service, they'd had this conversation fifty-nine times. This _was_ , however, the first time Regis had insisted _this strongly_ on Noctis bringing his sketchpad into the studio. He did as he was told, gathering his pencils and following behind Regis into the practice area. The second they crossed the threshold, the curtains opened and bathed the room in sunlight and green from the trees covering Regis' backyard.

Regis glanced around the room and smiled, before walking toward his piano and taking a seat on the stool. He stretched his arms and his fingers, then his back, and glanced at the sheet music he'd written a few days prior. Noctis was familiar with the song. One of his longer pieces, it was calm and it seemed to soothe Regis to play it. Noctis took a seat a few feet away, placing his sketchpad on Regis' writing desk and then turning to watch as Regis started to play the piece. Just a few notes in, though, he stopped and turned his full attention to Noctis.

"I have an idea," Regis declared.

Noctis looked at the desk. "Do you need the desk? I can-"

Regis shook his head. "Not that kind of an idea," he replied. "An idea to potentially bring out your creativity. To see what really goes on inside your mind."

"Regis, I-"

Regis hushed him sharply, then turned back toward the piano. "Trust me, Noctis," he insisted. "Now, what I want you to do is to listen as I play. Really listen. Not _only_ listen, though. I would like you to focus on the music. Beyond the sound of it; I want you to focus on what the music is trying to _say_. Then, I want you to add something to your drawing there, Noctis. Something that's just your own. What the music makes you feel."

On the tip of Noctis' tongue, there was a protest, a reminder that he didn't _feel_ things. He was an android. He was programmed to do what he was told, not to feel or think, or analyze music beyond the notes with tones attached to them. Of course, he was fully aware of how any protests and reminders he _couldn't_ feel things the way Regis wanted him to in this case would fall on deaf ears. Besides, Regis had given him a direct order. He'd been told to listen to the music, to feel the music, and to interpret it in his drawing.

While Noctis wasn't sure he was _capable_ of doing so, his programming overrode the uncertainty and told him to try and do what Regis asked.

"Alright," Noctis replied, and his own tone of voice surprised him. He sounded almost nervous.

Regis smiled, and turned back to his piano. "Close your eyes and listen for a few moments, Noctis, and then open them and draw when you're ready," he commanded.

Noctis did as he was told, letting his eyes slide closed and listened as Regis started to play. It wasn't the same song; not the one Regis had been practicing for days on end, getting ready to debut next week. This was one of his older songs, one of the more emotional and sad songs he'd written decades ago, back when his wife Aulea died. Noctis recognized it in an instant, and he listened as he was told to... when it hit him. He wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't feel _good_. It felt like someone was pulling at him from the inside. It was uncomfortable, a little bit worrisome, and even though Noctis wanted nothing more than to open his eyes and make it stop, his orders were to use it.

So, before it went away, Noctis sprang his eyes open and started transmitting those feelings onto the sketch. He used his eraser first, taking out the park bench and replacing it with pavement. On top of the pavement, he placed several dark, faceless figures. They were jagged and angry human-shaped shadows on the page, but they represented something very clear.

The clarity only grew when Noctis drew darkened protest signs over their heads; signs which he didn't fill in, but Noctis knew what they said. The figures were very dark, like silhouettes on a wall. Noctis didn't feel like they were dark enough, though. He ran his pencil along them a few times more, so hard it nearly broke through to the page beneath, all the way to the edge of the silhouette...

… and then outside of the edge.

All he could do was stare blankly, unblinking blue eyes examining the page as the strange wave of system instability ebbed back into normal status. That was when he realized Regis wasn't playing anymore, and had moved to stand behind him and examine what he'd drawn. Noctis looked from Regis to the drawing, his gaze settling on the spot where he drew outside of the silhouette. Quickly, he turned the pencil around to erase it, but he felt Regis' hand on his shoulder, halting him in place.

"Leave it."

"But-"

Regis smiled and leaned his hip against the desk. "Art isn't always perfect, Noctis. It doesn't have to be about coloring in the lines or making perfect replicas or structure. This? This is marvelous. It's visceral. It's... fear."

As Noctis examined the page, he stared at the little curve of pencil stroke outside of the lines. It was created by fear? Noctis turned to look up at Regis, who was eyeing the drawing in amazement and smiling. Regis turned his attention back to Noctis. Then, in a gentle and fond tone, he mused, "sometimes I would swear you're more human than most people are."

Noctis wasn't human, and even if he _was_ , it was logically impossible for him to be more human than an actual human being. Still, Noctis didn't question it. Regis was the type of man who liked sentimental things. The way he treated Noctis occasionally erred more toward familial than a human would their android. Noctis didn't particularly mind one way or another, but it was a little bit strange. Noctis was about to argue—to remind Regis that Noctis _wasn't_ human, but an android—but before he got the chance, there was a rhythmic knock on the wall inside of the studio.

"Knock, knock," a familiar voice rang out through the studio.

Instantly, against Noctis' volition, his threat protocol went into action as he spotted Regis' brother Ardyn, standing in the doorway. The man was as different from Regis as he could possibly be. Regis was kind and cared about everyone. He was successful and appreciated everything he'd been given in life. Ardyn, on the other hand, was a Scourge addict, who envied his brother's success and only really visited when he needed something. Usually, that something was money to buy more Scourge, or a place to hide when he found himself in trouble.

Noctis wasn't sure which it was this time, or if (hopefully) it was something else entirely, but the way Ardyn was eyeing all of Regis' instruments like they had price tags on them had Noctis instantly in protection mode. It wouldn't be the first time he'd had to throw Ardyn out of the house, and Noctis was sure it wouldn't be the last either.

Regis was endlessly patient with his brother and met his presence with a cordial smile. An analysis of his expression, however, showed a furrow in his brow, which generally meant suspicion. His body temperature rose about a tenth of a degree too, and his heart rate jumped just slightly, signifying his obvious stress at the sight of his brother.

"Ardyn, what can I do for you?"

Ardyn's expression hardened a little bit, as he stepped into the studio. "No need to be so cold, brother," he insisted. "I was in the neighborhood and I realized it had been a few weeks since I had visited with you. Simple as that. I merely came to see what you were up to."

Everything about Ardyn's appearance suggested he was lying. Noctis' temperature sensors picked up an abnormal body temperature, and his forehead was slick with sweat. His hair was matted and messier than usual, and his clothing was disheveled and dirty, like he wasn't properly caring for himself. A quick database search told Noctis these were all symptoms of withdrawal in humans. More specifically, Scourge withdrawal. Regis and Noctis were both aware of Ardyn's very long history with Scourge addiction, and though he had been in and out of treatment four times already, it never seemed to take.

With a low rumble of thought, Regis pushed himself back to his feet and set the notebook back on the desk. The suspicion was pretty obvious on his face, too. "I was working," he explained simply.

"Working," Ardyn deadpanned. "What, were you having your metal nurse look over your music? I'm not sure what its instruction manual says, but I can assure you, there are far better eyes to assess your work than ones with no feeling behind them."

Regis frowned. "Ardyn, I thought we'd grown past this," he answered, his tone equally as flat as he slowly made his way back to the piano. "If you're going to stay, that's fine, but I would appreciate it if you kept Noctis out of this. He's done nothing to you."

"Aside from throwing me out of the house on numerous occasions, you mean?" Ardyn responded, his expression almost amused as he continued into the room and stopped next to Noctis, looking down at the desk. "I suppose you're correct, though. I must keep my decorum, hm? Lest it sees me as a threat again and opts to throw me out the door." Completely ignoring Noctis' presence, he looked down at the sheet music and documents on Regis' desk.

After a couple seconds of silence, Regis blew a slow sigh out and stood back up from his piano stool. "If you've simply come to antagonize Noctis, then I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Ardyn. Since I suspect your visit to be much more than simply 'being in the neighborhood,'" he added, placing his cane across Ardyn's chest and urging him back from the desk.

Ardyn laughed a loud bark of laughter as he resisted being pushed back and pushed Regis' cane out of the way in turn. "Yes, of course. Protect your drone of a nurse from your big bad baby brother." He stepped back up to the desk and looked the papers over again, pausing when he came across Noctis' sketch. "Taken to drawing again, have you?" he mocked.

Evading the question was another skill Ardyn possessed, but Regis always seemed to find his way back to the subject at hand. "I didn't draw it," he answered simply. "And you didn't answer my question."

"You're expecting me to believe your little bucket of bolts drew this?" As Ardyn spoke, he turned his attention to Noctis and curled his lip derisively. "I've not taken _that_ much leave of my senses, brother. I wasn't aware expressionist art was in the programming of a caretaker android these d-"

Regis cleared his throat and stepped between Ardyn and Noctis. "I asked you a question, Ardyn," he spoke clearly, and in a far sterner tone this time. "Why are you here? You live all the way across town, and only come here for one very specific reason. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with this spontaneous visit, but I would far sooner believe so than the idea you simply longed for a family chat," he snapped.

The silence was more of an answer than anything else Ardyn could have said. If that didn't answer the question, the way his lip curled into an offended sneer picked up plenty of slack.

Noctis wanted to stand, to place himself squarely between Regis and Ardyn, to block the chance of any threat befalling Regis. He didn't suspect Ardyn would ever actually _physically harm_ his brother, use and abuse of their relationship notwithstanding, but when under duress, humans tended to act out. Ardyn, who was very clearly experiencing Scourge withdrawal, was even more unpredictable than usual. As Noctis moved to stand, Regis placed a hand on his shoulder and urged him back into the chair.

"You're on Scourge again, aren't you, Ardyn?"

Ardyn blinked a couple of times, and then narrowed his eyes. "Always so willing to think the least of me, Regis. I'm shocked. I'm hurt-"

Regis sighed again. "I'm not a fool, Ardyn," he answered. "Look at you. You're a mess, and you're showing up here to ask for money. It's happened before a thousand times."

"My brother the genius," Ardyn mocked. "Not only can he _always_ tell when his poor pathetic little brother has slipped up _again_ , but he's evidently capable of teaching an android to draw."

Noctis stood again, preparing to escort Ardyn from the house, but before he got the chance, Regis stood squarely between them again. Before Noctis could protest, Regis spoke up once more. "Ardyn, if you only came to visit to ask for money, then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'm not going to continually supply a habit which is slowly but surely putting you into an early grave-"

Laughing hysterically, Ardyn looked from Regis to Noctis, then back to Regis. "Says the man who spends all of his days with an emotionless tin can who just serves as an obedient shill and does whatever he says. Clearly, you know _so much_ about humanity and all of its tendencies, hm? I just need a little bit of-"

"No," Regis answered flatly.

Ardyn narrowed his eyes and then turned his attention completely to Noctis. "Why, because you spend it all on this thing? Clearly, it has all of the latest upgrades. It's not your family, you know, Regis? I am. It doesn't care about you. It's metal and plastic and blue blood. Clearly, we've got our wires crossed as to what pathetic truly means," he mocked.

"Enough!" Regis bellowed. "Leave, or I will have Noctis make you leave."

The second the command left Regis' lips, Noctis stepped forward with his hands extended to place on the outermost of Ardyn's coats. Before he could close his hands, Ardyn rolled his shoulders and knocked Noctis' hands away, before taking a step back. "Ah, there you go, proving my point again," he chided. "I suppose I should leave you to play with your toy. Very unfortunate, how some people have their priorities in the wrong place."

With one last long glance at Regis, then another at Noctis, Ardyn sighed dramatically and then shook his head in disdain. Without another word, he turned on his heel and left the house.

Only when Noctis was sure Ardyn was gone, did he turn and look at Regis, who was slowly walking back to the piano. He slumped back onto the piano stool, looking wearier than he'd been moments ago, and stared blankly at his sheet music.

"Are you okay, Regis?" Noctis asked.

Regis was silent for a few seconds, before he started playing his piano again. At first, he simply played a few soft notes, before murmuring softly, turning to Noctis, and saying, "yes, Noctis. I'm fine. Please practice drawing for awhile while I play, okay? And don't forget what I told you."

As Noctis turned back to the sketchpad, he couldn't help but notice how Regis' music seemed far more mournful than it was before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SUPER NERVOUS ABOUT THIS, BUT... I'm also proud of it, and feel like it's primed to be some of my best work. Writer problems, man.
> 
> Please note that ships are _eventual_ here, and won't come in until way later on! In fact, some of the main shippy players won't show up until several chapters in! ♥
> 
> Chapters here will alternate between Noctis, Ignis, and Luna's POVs. Each character represents another story from D:BH. I _won't_ be following canon strictly, though. There are a whole bunch of things that I want to do differently than canon!
> 
> Thanks so much to Lacie and V for helping me out with plot stuff and to Chellie for betaing and for listening to me scream incessantly about plot things as well. XD


	2. Reboot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings for:** mentions of child abuse and implied drug use.

_Accessing..._  
_Model: AX500_  
_Serial: 841 246 798_

_Bios 8.2_  
**_REBOOT._  
_MEMORY RESET._**

_LOADING OS._  
_System initialization..._

_Checking biocomponents: OK_  
_Initializing biosensors: OK_  
_Initializing AI Engine: OK_

_Memory status_  
_All systems: OK_

_REBOOT SUCCESSFUL._

AX500 opened its eyes, instantly spotting a young girl standing in front of it and looking up at it curiously. It watched as the girl tilted her head, examining it with wide eyes and a smile on her face. A few seconds passed, and a woman approached, taking the young child's hand and pulling her toward the AC600 on the left side of the room.

The sales floor was filled with other androids and humans, and AX500 watched the humans go about their business, choosing which android was right for them. Across the room, AX500 spotted a man in a bulky black coat with dark hair and slightly scarred skin on his face. He looked around the room with a taciturn expression on his face, almost annoyed and disgusted at having to be there, and forcefully flagged down the first clerk. The woman startled a little bit and looked up at the large man with wide eyes. AX500 didn't get to see much else, before its optics were blocked out by a couple looking at the android directly in front of it.

A few short moments later, the clerk and the large man had crossed the room, and they came to a stop right in front of AX500. The woman looked up at it with a smile on her face, though AX500's sensors told it the smile was not genuine. She showed clear signs of tension and discomfort, which only seemed to multiply when the taciturn man next to her spoke.

"So, it's just like it was before the accident?" the man asked, his voice gruff and unimpressed.

The woman nodded and turned to look at him, her smile faltering. "Yes," she answered simply. "I was a little surprised at the state he came back here in. We apologize for how long it took to get him back into working order. He was in really bad shape. What did you say happened to him?"

_Updating protocol.  
Gender: MALE_

As soon as the woman finished speaking, the man's eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "I told the technician when I dropped it off. A car hit it. An unfortunate accident," he explained.

"I see," the woman replied. She didn't verbally indicate any dissatisfaction with what the man was saying, but her muscles tensed a bit as she looked from the man to AX500, and then back. "Well, he's back in working order now." She glanced back, "except that we had to reset him. Wipe his memory clean. I hope you don't mind too much."

The man looked at AX500, a triumphant smile crossing his face. "No, that'll be absolutely fine." His tone held traces of satisfaction. "My son may be upset, but he'll get over it."

Lips drawn into a frown, the clerk looked from AX500 to the man. "Alright then. Did you give him a name?" she asked him.

"My son did."

The clerk stepped in front of AX500, looking him square in the eyes and speaking in a soft, kind voice. "AX500, register your name," she commanded, then she stepped out of the way, allowing the man to approach.

"Please speak my name clearly," AX500 directed.

When he did, his eyes narrowed, unimpressed. "Ignis."

"My name is Ignis."

With that, Ignis stepped down from the platform he was standing on and walked with the taciturn man and the clerk to the checkout line. He listened closely to the conversation, picking up little bits and pieces of necessary information to update his social protocols with. Namely, that his new master's name was Titus Drautos. He was to be the caretaker and housekeeper, and the babysitter for Titus' son. Titus didn't mention the son's name, but Ignis could wait. He would find out later. With the transaction complete, Ignis quietly followed Titus through the store and out to the parking lot, all the while making mental notes on his personality.

_Updating Protocol._  
File: Titus Drautos.  
Taciturn. Rude. Harsh. Impatient. 

"Get in," Titus commanded, pointing at a large black truck. It wasn't autonomous like the rest of the vehicles in the lot.

Ignis answered, "yes Titus," as he got in the car. He closed the door calmly behind him, then watched as Titus slumped into the seat and slammed the door angrily behind him.

The entire car ride was silent, and Ignis spent it looking out the window as they passed through town; tall buildings, green trees, rain-soaked pavement, covered by a cloud-cast sky. A light rain littered the windshield and the mirror as Ignis glanced at his reflection. It was his first time seeing himself since he was repaired; green eyes, mid-brown hair spiked up high above his head. The blue LED on his temple constantly swirled with each new bit of information he took in around him. Ignis turned to look back out the window, watching as buildings faded into businesses, which faded into construction sites, which faded into houses that seemed to be in disrepair.

The truck turned left, and Ignis turned to look at the street sign on the road. Tristis Lane. It matched the information he had on file for Titus' address, which meant that they were almost home. Ignis turned his attention back out the window, paying close attention to everything they passed. Several people were outside, one of them begging for change, two walking down the street together, and another chasing her children around her yard. Children; potential playmates for Titus' son?

As Ignis logged the information away, the truck came to a stop, and without ceremony, Titus stepped outside and slammed the door behind him again. Ignis followed his lead, stepping out into the rain. The cloud cover was lightening, and the forecast called for it to come to a full stop soon.

"Do you plan to make me wait all day?"

Ignis turned his head toward Titus, where he stood on the front step and tapped his foot impatiently. "Apologies, Titus," he answered, before starting toward the house.

Once Ignis caught up, Titus slid his keys into the lock and pulled the door open. "You are to clean the house; dishes, laundry, sweeping, windows, bathrooms. You are also to cook meals every day, and make sure everything in the house is in working order, and attend to my son." Once Titus slid his keys back into his pocket, he ran his fingers over his wrist, as though it was itchy.

Ignis' medical program detected a slight increase in his heart rate, and a slight drop in his temperature. "Are you alright, Titus? My sensors picked up an-"

"Mind your damn business," Titus snapped, narrowing his eyes and motioning for Ignis to close the door behind him. "As I was _saying_ , your main job is to tend to my son."

"Yes, Titus," Ignis replied.

"Where the hell is he? I half expected him to be waiting eagerly at the door for his precious android. Talcott!"

_Updating protocol._  
Main priority: Tend to Talcott.  
Secondary priority: Keep house in working order. 

As soon as Ignis' priority finished updating, he followed Titus' gaze to where he saw a young boy standing at the bottom of the stairwell with a stuffed cactuar in his hands. Ignis let a warm smile cross his face as he looked at the boy, who simply ducked his head nervously before smiling at his stuffed toy.

"This is Talcott," Titus introduced them flatly, coldly. "Like I said, your main job is to tend to him. That means to assist him with homework, babysit when I'm gone, make sure he's healthy and safe. Don't let _anything_ harm him. Is that clear?" His tone was far more stern than Ignis had heard it up to this point, and when Ignis turned to glance, Titus' eyes were narrowed in a silent threat.

Ignis simply nodded. "Yes, Titus."

_Updating protocol._  
Main priority: Keep Talcott safe.  
Secondary priority: Keep house in working order. 

After rolling his eyes dramatically, Titus brushed past Ignis and huffed. "Good. Now stay out of my way. I'm missing the game. Get to work. You've been gone two weeks, and things have gone to hell without you," he commanded.

Ignis raised his head, analyzing the house to see what needed to be done. The dishes were dirty, there was endless clutter on every single surface on the lower floor, the floors needed to be swept and vacuumed, and the counters needed to be wiped down. The simple task to start with was the clutter, so he got to work immediately. Each surface was covered with pizza boxes, garbage, and other forms of mess, so he passed by the trash bin and gathered a garbage bag from beneath the sink in its place. The first counter was completely covered with grime beneath the pizza boxes and other takeout containers, and there was a beer spill that had dripped down onto the floor. He made note of that, to return to it later.

The kitchen table came next, the most cluttered of all. There were months old sports magazines, as well as an article on the world-famous composer, Regis Caelum. Those, Ignis stacked and placed on a small shelf on the opposite side of the room. Then, he cleaned the take out bins and old newspapers from the table.

At the very bottom of the cluttered pile was an electric bill, three months past due. Ignis frowned, gathering it and cross-checking it with Titus' bank account. There was more than enough money there to afford the bill. There was enough to afford to pay all the bills in the average home, actually. Ignis decided that ensuring the electric bill was paid was a large part of making sure the house was in working order, so he quickly wired the funds to the power company, and then set the bill on top of the pile of magazines on the shelf. The next surface that needed cleaning was the table in front of Titus, so Ignis gathered his garbage bag and walked over to the table.

However, the second he crossed in front of the television, Titus' voice bellowed out through the whole lower floor, ordering Ignis to "get out of the way!"

Ignis stepped back quickly. "Apologies, Titus," he answered, and then turned to take the alternate route behind the couch. On his way by, he spotted Talcott, who sat on a nearby windowsill and watched Ignis very closely.

Rather than rush to pick up the mess, Ignis smiled and approached the windowsill, sitting down next to Talcott. The boy hadn't said much yet. Ignis assumed it had to do with the way his father didn't seem to like much talk happening around him. If Ignis had gathered that in such a short time, he assumed it was all the more prominent for Talcott.

Talcott stared at him for a couple of seconds, before quickly turning his attention back to his cactuar and hugging it close to him.

"You seem rather fond of that cactuar," Ignis spoke quietly, so as not to disturb Titus watching television. "How long have you had it?"

Much to Ignis' surprise, Talcott turned to look up at him with a slight smile in his eyes. "A really long time," he answered. "I don't think I've ever _not_ had him. There's really old pictures of me with him and-"

Before he could continue, Titus' voice cut through the conversation. "What have I told you about talking while I'm trying to watch television, Talcott?" he snapped, glaring at his son.

The way Talcott clammed up, balked, and looked down at the floor shocked Ignis. He felt an unexpected bit of fuzziness, but before he had a chance to process it and figure out what it was, Talcott stood up and ran toward the stairs. Ignis watched him disappear, and turned his attention toward Titus, staring at him as he reached down to the table for a small glass instrument. A thick purplish-black smoke floated up around it, bathing the area around Titus in a dark glow. Ignis tried to figure out what it was, searching his databases for any information, but before he got the chance...

"What are _you_ looking at?" Titus boomed. "I don't think I spent good money on you just so you could sit there and watch me. Get to work. There's still a lot you haven't done down here, right?"

Ignis nodded. "Yes, Titus."

With that, Ignis stood back up, walking around the back of the couch to gather the clutter on the table. The smoke around Titus put off a foul, sickeningly sweet odor, tinged with a bit of a metallic smell, and Ignis paused for a second, trying to figure out what it was once again. Just like the last time, he was thwarted by Titus, who cast him a sidelong glance.

"Staring at me again. Did they not completely fix you or something? Are you still defective?"

Quickly, Ignis busied himself with gathering the mess from Titus' table. "No, Titus. My apologies," he answered.

As soon as Ignis gathered the bulk of the trash, Titus shoved him out of the way. "Why don't you go do the dishes or something, rather than taking up my space?" he demanded.

"Yes, Titus," Ignis answered, tying the trash bag off and setting it down next to the pile. The odor was rancid, like they were filled with something else, which had long since expired. Ignis' priority protocol demanded for him to keep Talcott safe, and having rotting garbage in the house was very unsafe.

Nimbly gathering all of the garbage bags in his hands, Ignis hurried toward the front door, catching sight of Talcott on the stairwell again, watching him as he walked by. Ignis flashed Talcott a friendly smile, and then Talcott smiled back. Then, Ignis stepped outside to dispose of the garbage. In Ignis' periphery, he saw the curtains move, and he turned his head to see Talcott watching him as he brought the bags to the trash can. He decided to move quickly, so he didn't worry the child needlessly.

Once he returned to the house, he flashed Talcott another smile—again, Talcott reciprocated—and then moved around the ground floor, gathering dirty dishes to bring to the sink. With everything stacked up, Ignis made quick work of washing them, watching with a smile as Talcott approached him from his right side and leaned back against the counter. The child watched every move he took, and hugging his plush cactuar to his chest. As the boy smiled, another strange fuzziness overcame Ignis. He blinked, turning his attention back to the dishes, shaking it off before it distracted him too much more.

"Ignis!" Titus' voice echoed through the kitchen.

To his left, Talcott balked again, running out of the room and back to his spot on the windowsill. Ignis' fuzziness only increased then, but he didn't have time to try and analyze it at the moment.

Ignis snapped to attention, turning his head toward the living room and answering. "Yes, Titus?"

"Bring me a beer."

Setting the clean dish in the rack, Ignis put the sponge down. "Yes, Titus," he answered, turning his attention to the refrigerator. Quickly, he gathered a drink, walked into the living room, and set it down on the table.

An old abandoned vacuum cleaner sat in the corner of the room, but Ignis' situational protocol told him vacuuming the floor would be unwise at the moment. Titus seemed to like silence, and Ignis' analysis of the old vacuum cleaner told him it was very noisy. Instead, he spotted dirty, damp clothing hanging on the clothesline, and opted to go outside, gather that, and wash it again. Ignis looked through a nearby door, and proceeded through it when he spotted a washing machine and dryer sitting against the far wall. There was also a door nearby that led outside, so Ignis headed into the backyard.

The clouds were rolling in steadily, despite the forecast calling for them to dissipate, so hanging the clothing out to dry on the line was out. Fortunately, there was a dryer inside, so he continued to the clothesline. Halfway across the yard, he heard the door open and close again, and when he turned around, he saw Talcott walking down the stairs and into the backyard.

Ignis spared him a smile again. "Did you come back here to play?"

Talcott shook his head. "You... you used to let me help you with laundry and stuff. Before, I mean. Do you remember?" he asked.

Before. At the store, the clerk and Titus had discussed the extent of Ignis' repairs, and his memory had been too damaged and needed to be wiped. Ignis frowned. "Ah. I'm sorry. My memory was erased," he told Talcott.

The boy frowned, looking down at his cactuar again and then back up at Ignis. "Oh," he murmured, defeated.

"Of course, if I let you help me before, I would be willing to bet that we were friends, hm? Perhaps you can help me again, and you can remind me how close we were," Ignis suggested, beckoning with his head toward the clothesline.

Despite the sadness still lingering on Talcott's face, his expression brightened just a little bit as he dashed up to the clothesline and tried to reach the pins that held the clothes in place. He was just a little bit too short, though. Ignis looked around the yard, gathering a foot high block of wood and handing it over to Talcott. Talcott smiled in reply, and that slight fuzziness came back. Ignis turned his attention to his task, but devoted a little bit of processor space to trying to figure out what that sensation was.

While Ignis tried to process, Talcott talked about all of the things they used to do together. Ignis would read to him, they would play sports and go shopping together, and Ignis would power down for the evening in Talcott's room. He talked about times when his father would leave town for days, leaving Talcott in Ignis' care, and how the two of them were best friends… "or more like a family." As Talcott spoke, Ignis noticed every time Titus was mentioned, Talcott's spirit and excited demeanor seemed to dissipate into nothing. The boy's heart rate seemed to climb a little bit, too, and he tensed just slightly, like talking about his father was scary for him.

Nothing about Titus struck Ignis as very fatherly so far, truth be told.

"I know you don't remember but... now that you're back, does that mean we get to do all of that stuff again? 'Cause I... y'know. I missed you," Talcott told Ignis as he brought the few bits of clothing he'd taken down over to the basket and dropped them in.

Ignis smiled. "Absolutely," he promised. "I'm certain I missed you, too." Even if he didn't _know_ it for a fact, Talcott seemed so sure they were a family, and they were vitally important to one another. If Talcott was so certain, that was all Ignis truly needed.

That managed to bring a smile to Talcott's face, and he quickly closed the distance between them to throw his arms around Ignis' waist. Ignis felt that same hazy feeling all over again, but it didn't stop him from reaching up and gently wrapping his arms around Talcott's shoulders. As he patted Talcott's back, he looked out at the neighborhood outside of the fence, trying not to focus too hard on the haziness "Talcott! Where are you?"

Titus' voice was so loud it echoed out from inside, scaring a flock of birds out of the tree next to the window. Talcott tensed in response, and looked up at Ignis in apology.

"Don't you fret, okay? Go and see what your father wants, and I will be right in. Perhaps I can take you up to your room and read to you. Would that be okay?" Ignis asked, smoothing some of Talcott's hair from his face and watching as his expression lit up.

With an eager nod, Talcott hugged Ignis' waist a little bit tighter. "I'll go pick a book when daddy's done talking to me!" he answered excitedly, before wriggling out of Ignis' grasp, gathering his cactuar, and dashing back into the house.

Again, Ignis felt that slight fog, only this time it was more like a tug, or maybe a pulse, in his chest. It was strange, but he dutifully ignored it, opting instead to gather the laundry basket from the ground and carry it into the back door and over to the washing machine. The clothes smelled of mildew and damp air. It was very obvious they'd been out for far too long. 

Once the washing machine was filled to capacity, Ignis looked around the room for any clue as to where the laundry detergent was. The small tub of detergent crystals was on a shelf just over the top of the washing machine, and Ignis reached up, gathering it in his hand, and looking inside for the small scoop.

What he saw, instead, was a very small plastic bag sticking out of the top of the white soap. He took it in his hand, his brows furrowing as he examined it. Dark purple stones. Or maybe they were crystals? Whatever they were, they certainly didn't look like laundry detergent. He opened the envelope just slightly, looked in, and ran the chemical compound through his system. Scourge Crystals. Composed of mythril and several other minerals, and commonly sold on the streets as a recreational drug. As he finished scanning, he felt that same tug, that same haziness, overtake his systems.

The purplish-black smoke that surrounded Titus in the other room...

"Looks like you're snooping where you shouldn't be again," Titus spoke from directly behind Ignis. "Do I need to remind you what happens when you snoop where you shouldn't be? Or do you remember?"

Of course, Ignis _didn't_ remember, but something told him he didn't _need_ to remember. The way Titus was looking at him that moment told him more than any words or explanation or memory ever could. "No, Titus. My apologies. I was simply-"

Titus reached out, grabbing Ignis' wrist in his hand and viciously snatched the bag of Scourge Crystals away. He clenched Ignis' wrist a little tighter, in a way that likely would have hurt him if he were human. Titus threw Ignis arm back down, and it impacted with the washing machine in a loud 'thud' sound which echoed throughout the laundry room. Then, with Titus' other hand, he delivered a sharp shove to Ignis shoulder.

"Let's get something straight right now," Titus threatened, lifting his hand and grabbing a tight hold of Ignis' shoulder. "You clean for me and take care of my son. But the _second_ I see you snooping in places you don't belong? I'll crush you like the tin can you are. Are we clear?"

Ignis nodded once. "Yes, Titus," he answered, his voice level as ever.

At first, Titus simply narrowed his eyes, seemingly unimpressed with Ignis' acquiescence. After a few long seconds, though, he released Ignis' shoulder with a sharp shove, mumbled some curses under his breath, and turned on his heel to walk away. At some point, Talcott had walked in on the conversation, and when Titus approached, he simply shoved Talcott out of the way and told him to go to his room.

Talcott cast a glance at Ignis, worry and fear lining his eyes, before turning and running to follow his father's command. Ignis stood stone still for a couple of seconds, trying to process exactly what had just happened, before slowly turning around to start the laundry he'd put into the machine. In place of the haze, the pulling and pulsing feeling cropped up. Ignis didn't move for a few more moments, still trying to piece together exactly what was going on, both with himself and with Talcott and Titus. There was clearly some animosity from father to son, and Talcott also seemed to hold a justified bit of animosity toward his father. Or perhaps that was fear.

Either way, it was absolutely justified.

_Updating Protocol._  
File: Titus Drautos.  
Age: 43.  
Taciturn. Rude. Harsh. Impatient. Violent. 

_File: Talcott Drautos._  
Age: 8.  
Kind. Helpful. Meek. Gentle. Loves cactuars.  
Protect at all costs. 

With the laundry started, Ignis headed back into the house. He pointedly avoided Titus, instead opting to go upstairs, to clean up there and then check on Talcott. The first room he came across was very clearly Titus' room. Sports posters on the walls, empty beer cans, and booze bottles littered the rest of the room... Ignis stepped inside, and immediately set to cleaning the bottles and cans. They were hardly safe to have in a house with a child inside.

In his periphery, he spotted an open bottle of prescription medication on the bedside table, with several pills strewn across the table itself. Those were very obviously a hazard, and Ignis temporarily abandoned his task of cleaning the bottles and cans, in favor of scooping those up and putting them back in the bottle. A glance at the label told Ignis the medication was for depression, and he frowned as he opened the drawer to the bedside table to put them in. He stared for a few seconds at the gun in the drawer, before closing it and returning to the bottles and cans.

Something about the gun unsettled Ignis, caused another strange pulse in his chest, but he ignored it and finished cleaning Titus' room by making the bed. As he walked through the doorway and out into the hallway, he spotted Titus coming out of the bathroom. Ignis stopped in his tracks, and watched as Titus simply stared at him for a couple of seconds, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Then, Titus reached out and yanked on Ignis' shoulder, pulling him out of the way. "Thought I told you to stay the hell out of my _way_ ," he seethed, before storming back down the stairs.

_Updating Protocol._  
File: Titus Drautos.  
Taciturn. Rude. Harsh. Impatient. Very violent. Treat with caution. 

Once Titus was gone, Ignis made quick work of cleaning the bathroom after him, and the bathroom at the end of the hall, until the only room left was the one on the opposite side of the hall. Talcott's room. Talcott had a sign on the front, decorated in cactuar stickers, telling the world that it was, in fact, his room. Ignis smiled against his volition, and felt that same hazy pulse all over again. Pushing through it, he raised his hand and knocked on Talcott's door.

"Talcott? It's Ignis. Can I come in to clean?"

Clamoring footsteps sounded on the other side of the door, and then Ignis heard the tumblers turn and the door opened to reveal Talcott, smiling hopefully up at him. "Yeah! I'll help, and then maybe you can read to me afterward?"

Ignis nodded. "Sure. I said I would, after all."

Talcott stepped out of the way, inviting Ignis into his room. Without hesitation, and before Ignis even made it through the door, Talcott leaned down and started collecting things from the floor. Toys, books, playing cards—it looked like he'd been playing a game of solitaire before Ignis came up—and DVD cases littered the floor. Altogether though, Talcott's room was far and away the cleanest in the whole house. Between the two of them, it took almost no time to get the room clean, until all that was left was a small sketchpad on the floor, half-peeking out from underneath Talcott's bookshelf.

Ignis leaned down and picked it up, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Talcott tense. He paused, his hand on the cover, but offered it out to Talcott. "Am I not supposed to see this?"

"N-no. I think... I think you should. There's some stuff I think... you should probably know."

The sad and scared tone in his voice when he spoke made the foggy feeling come back, but Ignis looked back down at the notebook, before flipping the front page. On the first page was a crude, childlike drawing of a chocobo and a cactuar racing. It made Ignis smile softly to himself. The next few pages were similar. Drawings of animals, creatures like squirrels and dogs and cats. A few pages later, though, the troubling drawings started. There was one of Titus, yelling at a boy Ignis could only assume was Talcott. Then there was one of an android with green eyes and medium brown hair, who looked strikingly similar to Ignis, playing with Talcott in the backyard.

Ignis examined it closely. Both Talcott and the android were smiling. Happy. He flipped the page.

At the store, Titus had told the clerk that Ignis had been hit by a car, and that was how he'd broken. This picture told a different story. Titus held a large metal rod in his hand, threatening the android—threatening Ignis?—who stood protectively in front of Talcott cowering in a corner. Ignis stared at it for a few seconds, before glancing over at Talcott, who seemed anxious, or perhaps worried for a certain reaction.

The next page told Ignis exactly what had happened to him before he'd been reset. Titus still clutched the metal pole, which dripped with blue blood, and Ignis lay on the ground in pieces. Talcott was on his knees, crying over the shattered remains of Ignis, who was quite obviously deactivated. Another pulse thrummed in his chest, this one stronger than the others. The haze that went with it didn't dissipate as quickly this time, as the events became perfectly clear. Ignis' destruction hadn't been in an accident. There was no car. All there was, was an angry man and a metal pole.

Ignis quickly closed the notebook and looked at Talcott, who didn't say anything, just looked at Ignis with fear lining his expression.

"Was that me?" Ignis asked.

Talcott just nodded. "Uh huh. Before they erased your memory," he explained. His heart was beating a little bit fast, and he was blinking a little bit more frequently. Fear. Completely justified fear, if his father's actions were any indication.

Without another word, Ignis crouched down and slid the notebook under the bookshelf, where he assumed Talcott was hiding it. Then, he stood up straight and met Talcott's nervous gaze with a level one. "Come now," he spoke, his tone gentle and soothing. "Let's not fret about the past anymore, okay? Let's read together for awhile, instead."

Despite Ignis' own uncertainty—both about Titus and the mysterious haze and thrums that were working their way through his systems—he couldn't allow Talcott to be afraid. His first priority was to keep Talcott safe, after all. Sometimes, the thing creating the danger was the last thing expected to create danger. Titus had his son living in fear. Living in fear was not safety.

_Updating protocol.  
Main priority: Keep Talcott safe, **no matter what**._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY. An intense bit and it's only chapter two!
> 
> I was really excited to write this from Ignis' POV! Ignis is one of my favorite voices to write, and it was a bit of an added challenge to make him an android! I hope you guys like it!


	3. Survey

_Ifrit's Blaze_  
2261 Inveniet Avenue  
Insomnia, Lucis 

As Lunafreya's taxi pulled up to the last bar on her list, she began to wonder if perhaps she would have to expand her search. After quickly paying the 1,900 gil fare, Lunafreya stepped onto the curb and looked up at the sign. It was a simplistic drawing. The human depiction of one of their deities, holding a liquor bottle which spewed flame from the top. As Lunafreya cast her eyes back down, she noticed a large crack in the right-hand window that spread from the lower left corner to the top right. There were several crumbled bricks in the wall as well, and one of the upstairs windows was completely missing and boarded up.

Lunafreya's sensors depicted traces of pigeon debris inside the window, and the sills and walls were spotted with pigeon fecal matter. Despite all of the hazards, the health department still seemed to have given the establishment a A- rating. Lunafreya's database scans showed multiple signs of foul play, but that wasn't her mission today.

Today, she was here to find her assigned partner. According to Captain Leonis, the man—Sergeant Nyx Ulric—was difficult to get in touch with, but was usually found at one of the local bars, socializing, having a drink, or watching a hockey game. Ifrit's Blaze was a little far to be considered local, at nearly a mile away from the police station, but within a three-mile radius, there were about twenty more bars. If Sergeant Ulric wasn't here, her search could truly take all night.

She straightened her skirt, where it had crimped from sitting in the taxi for so long, pulled her tie a little bit tighter, adjusted her lapels, and then made her way to the door.

In her periphery, she spotted a street cat stepping out of a nearby alley. It trotted quickly, rushing to get past her, and she allowed herself a brief moment to smile at it. Animals, she had always found, were fascinating to watch. They were very similar to humans, in that they acted in accordance with their needs, but their motives and directives were far more simple. In that way, she reasoned, they were more like androids. Fiercely loyal to an owner, but when they didn't have one—when they operated independently—that was when they became a danger to themselves and to everyone else around them.

On the door, lettered in bold red and impossible to miss, was a 'NO ANDROIDS ALLOWED' sign. She hesitated, her hand inches from the door as she stared at the sign and searched her situational protocol for which order took priority. Beginning the mission was impossible without Sergeant Ulric, so without further hesitation, she pushed the door open and walked into the building.

The air was hardly clean. Her sensors picked up a mix of twenty-five percent cigarette and cigar smoke, and a strong hint of stale, spilled beer that was practically soaked through the floorboards. Mixed in with that was the mold in the walls—again, Lunafreya turned back toward the A- health rating displayed in the window—it was a hazard for humans to even _breathe_ in here. It was also incredibly crowded, making it somewhat difficult for Lunafreya to find Sergeant Ulric.

At least without a good look at his face.

Every single eye in the bar was on her, but Lunafreya used that to her advantage, scanning every face and getting an ID on each individual. Luckily, she was able to locate Sergeant Ulric in the back of the crowd, just as he started to turn away from her and back to his drink. She moved through the stares, unfazed by the comments about patrons expressing their annoyance at an android being in an android-free establishment. Some of the declarations were sharper than others, and Lunafreya found herself surprisingly disappointed and annoyed by those.

Not all androids were like deviants. When used properly, an android was a tool. They were designed to help humans with tasks. Deviation was simply an unfortunate flaw in an android's code.

All of this remained internal, as Lunafreya finally reached Sergeant Ulric. She slid onto the bar stool beside him, trying to mimic the casual behavior of a human, but the way he looked sidelong at her with his eyebrow quirked over the brim of his glass of whiskey indicated a generous amount of suspicion.

"Act like a human all you want, but the LED is a dead giveaway," Sergeant Ulric said, his tone obviously amused as he turned back toward the TV.

Lunafreya's eyes widened against her volition, and she watched him closely for a couple of seconds, before responding. "Apologies. I was merely trying to arouse the least suspicion from everyone else. To ease their minds a little bit. They seem to be quite displeased by my presence here," she pointed out, looking over at her shoulder to see a whole table of men glaring at her.

The bartender—a man named Petra Fortis—responded with a rather curt, "yeah well, that's because this place is supposed to be android free," before lifting his chin at Sergeant Ulric, and then turning his gaze down at the glass in his hand.

Sergeant Ulric nodded, setting the glass back on the table. "Easy, Fortis. Pretty sure the station said that I was supposed to meet my new android partner there. I'm gonna assume that's who she is, since she seemed to make a beeline for me once everyone else stopped staring at her," he explained as the bartender started refilling his glass.

Astute. That much was on Sergeant Ulric's personal file; he was a skilled detective and he was good with people. A part of Lunafreya wondered if that skill transcended people to androids, but she didn't ask as much aloud. It was abundantly clear that the bartender wasn't impressed with her presence, so she opted to stay out of his way until he'd gone back to his business. She responded to Sergeant Ulric's question with a nod of her head, keeping her expression neutral.

"Well, if it's yours, you probably don't need another drink. Get it out of here before it spooks my customers anymore," commanded the bartender, glaring daggers at Lunafreya as he took Sergeant Ulric's glass in the sink instead of refilling it.

Lunafreya looked at the bartender and smiled. "Please, get him his drink," she told the man. "I'll pay for it. A last one for the road, as they say?" It was an attempt at courtesy, to ease the bartender's mind with a little bit of money, and perhaps a tip, to paint _proper_ androids in a good light.

All it earned was an annoyed grunt as Fortis gathered another glass. "Better not be some damn android money. Cryptocurrency or nuts and bolts, shit like that," he snarked.

"I assure you," Lunafreya responded, "it is merely dollars and cents. How much?"

Fortis huffed. "Four-seventy-five," he told her.

Lunafreya nodded and pulled a small billfold from her pocket. This place had no android register, naturally, but Magitek had seen fit to prepare her for exactly such an occasion, with enough paper money to get her out of any sort of trouble. She placed a ten dollar bill on the counter, nodded her head, and told the bartender to, "keep the change."

Sergeant Ulric pursed his lips in amusement. "Can't complain about a five dollar tip, Fortis," he pointed out.

"Oh, I can complain. Need I remind you that there's a damned android in my bar," Fortis countered, as he filled Sergeant Ulric's glass with more whiskey and set it down on the counter. He cast Lunafreya another cold glare and then headed further down the bar to tend to other customers.

Chuckling softly, Sergeant Ulric watched him retreat, and then turned his attention to Lunafreya. "So, Magitek sent you to help me with this deviant bullshit, huh?" he asked.

Lunafreya nodded her head. "I was supposed to show up tomorrow," she explained, watching as he downed half the drink in one pull, "but something happened and they sent me in early."

That seemed to pique Sergeant Ulric's interest, and he took another, shorter pull from his drink, then asked, "what happened?" in a level tone.

"An incident downtown, past the new Magitek construction site. Suspected android involvement," Lunafreya told him.

At first, Sergeant Ulric didn't react, beyond draining the last of his drink and pushing out of his chair. "Android involvement. And they thought it was a good idea to send another android to help me?" he asked, sliding down from the bar stool and heading for the door.

Lunafreya followed his lead, not fazed by the suspicion. "Yes," she answered simply. "My name is Lunafreya, and I'm a special model. A detective and a negotiator. By their logic, if we run into any deviants during our investigation, which we undoubtedly will, it will be easier for said deviants to trust and open up to one of their own kind."

Sergeant Ulric muttered his approval, tilting his head to the side and starting toward the exit. "Makes sense, I guess. Long as they're sure you won't go rogue on them or anything." He seemed amused by the concept.

"I assure you," Lunafreya answered flatly, as they exited the bar, "there is absolutely no chance of me deviating. Magitek has fail-safes in place to keep me from 'going rogue' as you say, and I want nothing more than to see these blemishes on Magitek's record off the streets."

For a second, all Sergeant Ulric did was stare at her. "Easy there," he mused, "I was only kidding."

A joke. Lunafreya paused for a couple of seconds, straightening her tie and nodding once. "I see," she replied calmly. "I apologize. Deviants are not something that I take lightly, as I feel they are likely the sole reason that signs like that one on the bar's door exist." She turned just slightly and pointed at the 'no androids' sign.

"Maybe," Sergeant Ulric responded with a shrug, though he seemed doubtful. "Maybe not. Doesn't really matter. Where are we headed?" He stopped in front of an old 756 Audi A5, and started digging into his pocket.

Lunafreya watched him for a couple of seconds, analyzing him briefly to see if he was safe to drive. He'd just been in a bar, and who knew how long he'd been there before Lunafreya arrived? He clocked in at just under the legal limit, and Lunafreya wrestled for a few seconds with the decision, before stopping him with her arm and wedging her way between Sergeant Ulric and his car. She extended her other hand, placing it in front of him and making a subtle beckoning motion.

He looked at her inquisitively, the same way he'd been watching her inside the bar, then looked down at her outstretched hand like it was some sort of foreign object. "What?" he asked her, his face contorted in confusion.

"My analysis indicates that you are .2% under the legal limit to safely operate a motor vehicle, Sergeant Ulric. As much as I'm certain you can handle driving, I would much rather drive, so we can get there in one piece," Lunafreya insisted, making another beckoning motion with her hand, and showing no sign of moving out of the way.

The contortion on Sergeant Ulric's face merely grew, his brows furrowing and his lips pursing just slightly. "You gotta be shittin' me. I'm getting a 'don't drink and drive' lecture from a damned android?" he asked, before glancing down at Lunafreya's hand again.

Lunafreya beckoned for the keys once more, and even when all Sergeant Ulric did was look at her incredulously, she showed no sign of relenting. "This can go one of three ways. We can walk to the crime scene and waste substantial time getting there. Or perhaps you would rather hail a cab, but there's no guarantee a cab will get us there any faster than walking. Of course, you could always pass me the keys and allow me to drive your car. It is both the fastest and the safest option, by fifteen percent each."

Sergeant Ulric looked at her in question. "Can androids even drive?"

"Even if we can't, I would assume it to be safer than someone who is just beneath inebriated, would you not?" Lunafreya replied quickly.

For a few seconds, Sergeant Ulric simply looked at her in surprise, processing her answer. Then, he sighed in resignation, raised his hand, and pressed the keys into her palm. "Figures. Of all the androids in the damn world, I get the sassy one. I swear to each and every Astral, if there's a single scratch on my car when we get there, I'm billing Magitek for every penny of the repair bill," he told Lunafreya as he made his way around the car.

Lunafreya simply nodded, before turning her attention to the keys. "I'm certain they'd be more than willing to pay," she insisted.

With that settled, Lunafreya turned her attention down to the keyring in her hand. She wasn't sure how humans amassed so many keys in their lifetime, but searched the chain and selected the car key all the same. She unlocked the doors, and slid into the driver's seat. Truth be told, Lunafreya had never actually driven a car before. It was a peculiar thing, to be sitting in the driver's seat, but a quick database search told her all of the proper things to do when she settled in.

 _Adjust the mirrors, adjust the seat for proper pedal reach, adjust the steering wheel, and fasten the safety belt._ Once she buckled in, she turned her attention over to Sergeant Ulric, looking at him expectantly.

"You serious?" he asked.

Lunafreya nodded her head. "Yes, I am quite serious," she countered, waiting for him to fasten his safety belt as well. "Buckle up for safety, as they say."

Sergeant Ulric snorted a laugh as he fumbled around in blind search of his safety belt. "Detective and negotiator android, she says. Sound more like a safety lecturer," he murmured in annoyance as he fastened the belt.

"Much better," Lunafreya decided, before putting the key in the ignition, turning it, and pulling onto the road. Her internal GPS told her that, while obeying traffic laws, they could make it to the crime scene within fifteen minutes. Far more satisfactory than walking or taking a taxi. "Try to sober up on the way there, Sergeant. Otherwise, I suspect you will be in for a long night."

After some more mumbled curses under his breath, Sergeant Ulric looked at her sidelong. "So, you never told me what this crime was, only that it was a crime scene and it involves deviants," he pointed out.

"My file says murder," she explained, her tone still level. "I'm not quite sure of the details, just that a neighbor noticed an odor coming from the house and they hadn't heard from the victim or their android in quite some time. Beyond that, I'm unsure of anything. Once we get there, I'm sure your coworkers will have more details."

With a chuckle, Sergeant Ulric mused, "can't imagine they'll be happy to have an android on the scene, so you should prob'ly be ready for that." He turned his head, looking out the window. It seemed like his eyes were following a raindrop as it slid down the windowpane.

Lunafreya wasn't too concerned about people disliking her. Truth be told, with all the deviancy cases popping up, it was more common not to trust androids than to trust them. While that wasn't the _only_ reason that people resented them, it seemed to be the growing one. "There is nothing they can say to harm me, Sergeant. I'm not a human, I'm a machine," she insisted.

Snorting a laugh, Sergeant Ulric turned to look back at her. "Must be nice," he answered sarcastically.

The rest of the car ride was spent in relative silence. It took exactly fifteen minutes to get to the crime scene in the very limited late night traffic. Lunafreya pulled up behind a police cruiser and cut the engine, tugging the key out and offering it back over to Sergeant Ulric. "Far safer than you driving, no?"

"We still would've made it fine," Sergeant Ulric insisted.

Lunafreya didn't respond. Instead, she simply opened the car door and stepped outside. The rain was cold, and the late autumn air wasn't helping it at all. These weren't optimal conditions for human beings to be outside, and yet, several human beings stood vigil, guarding the entrances to the crime scene. Lunafreya wondered, sometimes, why androids didn't do these jobs for these people, too. They would be significantly safer inside their homes or office buildings, sheltered from the rain and the chill.

As though proving her point, Sergeant Ulric tugged his jacket tighter around himself and looked up at the sky. "Fucking shit it's cold out here," he cursed.

"I would suggest moving toward the crime scene with haste, Sergeant. It is inside, and you can shelter yourself just slightly," Lunafreya told him as she stepped up onto the sidewalk next to him.

Sergeant Ulric looked at her in surprise, then chuckled softly. "Detective, negotiator, Uber driver, breathalyzer, safety advisor... what're you gonna do next?" His voice was playful, but there was also a level of sarcasm to it. It sounded almost like he _wanted_ to be kidding. "Well then, Robocop, let's go."

Without further hesitation, they made their way to the crime scene tape. Before Lunafreya could cross though, the officer guarding it placed a hand in front of her and held her back. "No androids allowed," he told her sharply.

"I'm Lunafreya, the android sent by Magitek. I'm-"

Sergeant Ulric sighed, waving the officer off. "She's with me," he said.

There was a moment of silent communication between them, something Lunafreya didn't quite understand. There were some nuances about humanity she would probably _never_ appropriately understand. Still, the officer seemed to understand it just fine, and stepped out of the way to let Lunafreya pass. When he did, she followed behind Sergeant Ulric, toward another detective, who stood shivering in the middle of the front yard.

"Fuck man, it's cold as Shiva's tits out here," the detective said to Sergeant Ulric in lieu of a greeting.

Lunafreya observed the way they interacted for a couple of seconds. Sergeant Ulric clearly knew him, and Lunafreya didn't expect or need an introduction. Instead, she scanned the detective's face quickly. Luche Lazarus, homicide detective. Thirty-one years old. Most commonly placed on android crimes.

Sergeant Ulric nodded and laughed softly. "Tell me about it," he answered. "So, what've we got here?"

At first Detective Lazarus looked like he was going to answer, but then he spotted Lunafreya and stopped suddenly. "An android?" he asked, pointing his thumb at Lunafreya, but addressing Sergeant Ulric.

"Mmm," Sergeant Ulric replied. "Magitek sent her. She's a detective and a negotiator. Don't ask me, man. I just know she's supposed to help us out on this deviancy bullshit."

Detective Lazarus narrowed his eyes at her, and then turned back to Sergeant Ulric. His expression didn't soften. "So, we're gonna risk it deciding to help them, then," he sneered.

Sergeant Ulric side-stepped, so that he was standing between Lunafreya and Detective Lazarus, and spoke in a calm tone. "Can we just not right now, Luche? I know you don't like androids, but we've got work to do, and Captain Leonis obviously signed off on her being here, so maybe just... chill out and do your job so that I can do mine?" he asked.

Given the history Detective Lazarus had with android crime, his stance on androids made sense. Lunafreya met his criticism with a calm gaze, and offered, "I've no sympathy for deviants, Detective. They're nothing but defective machinery, and should be treated as such," she told him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean they can't... I dunno, infect you with a damn virus or something. You're a machine, too," Detective Lazarus responded coldly.

Lunafreya expected that answer. "Yes," she agreed. "However, Magitek has taken significant steps to ensure your safety. Firewalls, remote security, I have all the latest security software installed. I suspect there will be no such issues. If I am infected somehow, swift action will be taken."

That seemed to catch Sergeant Ulric's attention more than Detective Lazarus'. Sergeant Ulric watched her for a few seconds, his eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. Before he could speak up though, Detective Lazarus huffed an annoyed noise and rolled his eyes. "Guess that was good enough for Captain Leonis. I'm watching you, though. If I see anything fishy, I won't hesitate to shoot you," he threatened.

"As well you should," Lunafreya agreed.

With that, Detective Lazarus threw his hands into the air and walked away, stopping only when he reached another pair of law enforcement personnel. He glared at Lunafreya from the corner of his eyes, before turning to the other officers completely and started to mumble under his breath. Now that everything was settled, Lunafreya turned toward Sergeant Ulric, watched him stare at her for a few seconds, then turned toward the crime scene. Sergeant Ulric simply stared for a few more steps, before finally picking up his step and jogging to catch up to her.

They reached the door, and Sergeant Ulric stopped suddenly. "Titan's Ass! What the fuck is that smell?!" he asked.

"I believe that's decomposition, Sergeant Ulric," Lunafreya responded calmly.

Sergeant Ulric scoffed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "No shit," he responded flatly. "Next thing you know, you'll be telling me that it comes from dead things."

Lunafreya nodded. "That is one possibility, yes. Another is sewage, and-"

"I know what causes decomposition, okay? I don't need some android to tell me. Where's the victim?" Sergeant Ulric asked, lifting his jacket to cover his nose as he looked around the entryway to the small house.

Fortunately, Lunafreya was uninhibited by a true sense of smell. Her olfactory sensors could pick up odors, but she didn't _smell_ them like humans did. It allowed her to simply walk into the domicile, and look around the entryway until she spotted a dried blood trail. It looked dark all the way through. Clearly, it had been there for quite some time. She would need to get closer to really look. She motioned down the entry hallway. Seconds later, she saw a pair of CSIs walking from one room to another, cameras at the ready.

"I believe the victim is down there," Lunafreya answered, then started toward the end of the hall without waiting for a reply.

The house was rather rustic. The floors were in disrepair, and the windows that Lunafreya could see through open doors were cracked and broken. The ceilings seemed to have discolorations from leaks, and the wallpaper was torn completely off in several places. There were holes in the walls, leading to exposed wiring and studs. Lunafreya's scans indicated that some were caused by human hands, while others were caused by baseball bats, golf clubs, and various other blunt instruments. There were small burn marks on the walls, likely from cigarettes, and all of these things led. Whoever lived here had quite a history of violence.

Sergeant Ulric breathed an incredulous sigh. "This place is a damn mess," he stated simply.

"Yes," Lunafreya agreed. "Much of it was inflicted by an intelligent being, be that the deviant or the victim or someone else entirely." She went over all of the things she'd seen so far, the holes, the burns, then turned her attention to Sergeant Ulric for his opinion.

With a shrug, Sergeant Ulric decided, "we should take a closer look before we leave."

Lunafreya nodded once. They reached a door which was slightly ajar, and she tugged it open to see several law enforcement personnel walking around the room. As soon as the door opened, Sergeant Ulric made another noise of disapproval. He tugged his coat closer to his nose. Lunafreya's olfactory sensors picked up a drastic increase in the decomposition smell. As soon as the process finished, she glanced across the room and spotted the victim.

The man wasn't decomposed, but he was certainly beginning to. Houseflies crowded to his body, and his skin was pallid gray. The blood on his stomach, throat, and hands had long since dried. Lunafreya didn't wait for Sergeant Ulric. She crossed the room and stopped before the corpse, looked down, and started her analysis. The first thing she noticed was the state of his decomposition. His insides were already starting to break down, and her databases confirmed he'd been here for at least two weeks. The blood was nineteen days old, which meant everything had taken place that long ago.

"Tredd Furia," Lunafreya told Sergeant Ulric. "Criminal history of aggravated assault, Scourge possession and distribution, and armed robbery."

"Explains the Scourge I found over here," Sergeant Ulric agreed from across the room. "Find out anything else?"

Lunafreya nodded. "Yes," she answered. "The blood stains on his clothing and the floor are around nineteen days old, and he has been dead for more than two weeks." She turned to look at Sergeant Ulric, who was looking at the table. Unlike her, he couldn't touch evidence yet, for fear of leaving prints. Lunafreya's lack of fingerprints was an obvious advantage.

"Okay," Sergeant Ulric replied. "Any idea what killed him?"

That, Lunafreya didn't know yet. She turned back to the body, and started to analyze it again. There were several injuries, and several other ways for a human to potentially die on or around him. First of all, his mouth and nose both had traces of Scourge in them, like he'd been both smoking and snorting it. His shirt had vomit and dried alcohol on it, suggesting intoxication. The most prominent of injuries were the knife wounds. Multiple stab wounds littered his chest, there were a few obvious self-defense wounds on his hands, and a slash to his throat. Her scans told her it was the most fatal of the bunch.

With confidence, Lunafreya turned to Sergeant Ulric and said, "he bled out after his carotid artery was severed."

Sergeant Ulric crossed the room and crouched next to her. His face was contorted, like he was obviously disgusted with the smell, but he still looked the body over. Professional. That was good. "Yeah, that's a pretty good starting guess, but we should look around more. See if we can't piece together exactly how it happened," he told her.

"Very well," Lunafreya agreed, standing up to look around the immediate area.

Sergeant Ulric watched Lunafreya closely for a few seconds, before turning to walk away and look around the room again. "I see a blood trail that leads into the next room," he pointed out.

Lunafreya followed his gaze down to the blood trail, then paused when she spotted a rather large gathered blood pool. A brief scan showed mythril—the main component in android fuel—mixed in with the blood. She crouched down, examining it a little bit closer, before coming to the conclusion that, "The deviant may be injured."

Sergeant Ulric crouched down in front of an evidence marker. "What makes you say that?"

Reaching down, Lunafreya touched her fingertips to the mixture of dried human blood and mythril. She brought it to her mouth and pressed it against her tongue.

"Lunafreya! What the... what the _fuck_ are you doing?" Sergeant Ulric shouted, catching the attention of all of the other officers and criminologists on the scene. "You can't... you can't just _eat blood_!"

Quirking an eyebrow, Lunafreya shook her head. "I'm not eating it, Sergeant," she corrected. "My tongue has a chemical sensor on it, and I am capable of determining the chemical compound of any substance on the spot, so-"

Sergeant Ulric dismissed her explanation with a wave of his hand and turned toward the evidence marker in front of him. "Got it. Androids are weird, and you're the weirdest of the bunch," he murmured. "Did you at least find anything interesting? Or did you just gross me out for absolutely no reason?"

"The blood here has mythril mixed into it," she explained, looking at the blood that remained on her fingertips. "Mythril is the main component in what humans call 'blue blood,' the fuel that keeps androids running. This particular mythril has traces of minerals which suggest it belongs to an HK300 model home assistant android."

After grunting his acknowledgment, Sergeant Ulric pointed down at the ground. "Think this is the murder weapon. Unless he stabbed someone else recently," he mused in a macabre tone.

Lunafreya stood, approaching Sergeant Ulric and looking at the knife on the ground. "Given his criminal history, that wouldn't come as a surprise," she pointed out, before quickly scanning the knife. The scan only confirmed them to be Mr. Furia's however, and Lunafreya added that information to her case file.

"Fair point," Sergeant Ulric agreed. "But I'm gonna assume you just confirmed it."

With a single nod, Lunafreya stood up. "The blood belongs to Mr. Furia. So, it's safe to assume this is the murder weapon."

Sergeant Ulric stood, his brow furrowed in apparent thought. "I know you said deviance is just a mockery of humanity or whatever," he started, "but if it is, then I can't imagine there not being _some_ sort of motive. Even if it's a shitty motive..."

There was an argument on the tip of Lunafreya's tongue, telling Sergeant Ulric he was giving deviants too much credit. Instead, she lifted her head again, then looked around the room. There was another evidence marker a few feet away, barely concealing the head of a golf club. Without a word, she approached it, crouching down and analyzing it. Sure enough, Furia's fingerprints were on the handle. On the head and down the bent and dented length of the club, there were traces of long dried mythril. Lunafreya turned to Sergeant Ulric, then looked back down at the golf club.

"I may have found our motive."

Sergeant Ulric joined her, crouching down to look at the golf club. "Titan's balls, this thing's bent to shit," he commented.

Lunafreya nodded. "There are traces of mythril on the head of the club, belonging to the same model android as the pool in the other room. The only fingerprints on it belong to Tredd Furia. He must have used it on the android. The direction of the blood trail and the traces of mythril in this room indicate Mr. Furia struck first, near the counter over there, so..."

"So, the android was trying to defend itself," Sergeant Ulric reasoned.

Self-defense. Self-defense was reasonable. According to social protocol, any creature would defend itself when placed in a dangerous situation. Another bit of evidence toward deviants mimicking human tendencies. Lunafreya felt an odd twinge in her core, but she shook it off quickly and stood. "None of the mythril trails lead out of the house, though. One leads into the living room, toward the body, and the other one leads down this hallway," she explained.

Sergeant Ulric mumbled something to himself, then looked over at the detectives guarding the back door. "Doesn't mean anything. It could've patched itself up or something before it left. I'll check the back and see if there's any signs, if you want to follow the blood trail and see where it leads," he suggested.

With a single nod of acquiescence, Lunafreya glanced down at the floor. She stood, following the mythril trail as far as the bathroom door, where a large mythril handprint grabbed the doorknob. The trail seemed to end there. Was it actually possible for the detectives to have missed something as simple as checking the restroom? Humans may not have had her exact protocols, but that didn't mean they were complete idiots. They must have cleared the room. She reached for the doorknob, and pulled it open quickly. 

Much to her surprise, she found absolutely nothing. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the bathroom, other than trace drops of mythril on the floor, leading to the mirror. One mythril handprint decorated one side of the sink. It was bold and pronounced like the deviant had grabbed held onto that spot for quite some time. Otherwise, nothing seemed out of place at all.

Lunafreya stepped outside of the bathroom, and looked around the small hallway.

"Find anything?" she heard Sergeant Ulric call from the other end of the hallway as he approached.

At first, Lunafreya was going to tell him she hadn't. That was when she spotted it, though. Another small mythril handprint, marking the handle to a door in the ceiling which likely lead to the attic. She turned toward Sergeant Ulric and pointed upward. "The attic door has a mythril coated handprint on it. Boost me, please," she suggested.

Sergeant Ulric looked at her incredulously. "Will I even be able to boost you?"

"Yes," Lunafreya confirmed. "The average android weighs as much as the average human. You should have no issue boosting me."

Laughing quietly to himself, Sergeant Ulric crouched down to the ground and wove his hands together. "Today's been nothing but a giant lesson on androids," he grumbled.

Lunafreya stepped into his hand, balancing herself easily as he hoisted her up. She placed her hands on the door to the attic, pushing it open and then grabbed hold of the floor on the level above her. Effortlessly, she hoisted herself up so she was on her knees on the floor above, and then set to looking around. The whole floor seemed to be filled with items that it didn't seem likely for a man like Mr. Furia to own. Antique furniture, beautiful paintings, decorative curtains, things that would have served to make the lower floor look much more habitable. Everything was caked in dust, and it made Lunafreya wonder if anyone had ever been up here before now.

"Any way to get me up there?" Sergeant Ulric asked her from below.

"I don't believe so. That aside, it would be faster if I searched it alone. You wait there. I shouldn't be too long," Lunafreya answered, standing up and straightening her skirt.

After Sergeant Ulric's command to be careful, Lunafreya wove her way through the clutter in the attic. Dust motes floated through the air, illuminated occasionally by lightning bolts through the window on the other side of the room. Lunafreya pushed past a line of women's clothing on a rack, stepping through the space it created and wove her way around a bookshelf full of paperback encyclopedias from nearly half a century ago. None of her scans picked up any discernible fingerprints. There were spots that could have been _ancient_ fingerprints, but they were decades old and covered in dust.

Just then, a flash of bright red light darted across the room. She squinted against the darkness, trying to crane her neck and follow the light to where it disappeared, but all she could see was more dust. After ducking underneath an old table that was flipped over and laying atop two bookshelves, Lunafreya was forced to turn a corner, as she'd reached the far wall of the attic.

On the opposite side of the room, Lunafreya spotted the same distinct red light. An android LED. She had it cornered.

"I see you. Please come out and make things easier on both of us."

At first, it didn't seem like the android was going to move. It stayed hunkered down in the corner of the room, and Lunafreya saw the red on its LED swirling, as though trying to process the information. Perhaps, it was gauging its options. A couple more seconds passed, and then the android stepped out of the shadows, into the pale light cast through the window by the streetlights.

The HK300 model was female, with long brown hair and brown eyes. Her skin was covered with human blood, as well as some mythril on her shirt. A large and gaping wound revealed the mythril tubes inside her cheek. She looked at Lunafreya with wide eyes—seeming almost panicked—and held her hands up in surrender.

"Please. I-I'm not gonna attack, okay? Can we just... can we forget this happened? I was just defending myself and-"

Lunafreya didn't let her finish speaking. "Sergeant Ulric! It's here!"

The deviant went silent, her expression going somber as she looked down at the dirty floor beneath her feet. Then, she turned to look back up at Lunafreya sadly, as if Lunafreya had betrayed some kind of imagined trust the pair of them had. It rooted Lunafreya in place until Sergeant Ulric and Detective Lazarus brushed around either side of her and arrested the deviant. The lack of defiance took Lunafreya by surprise, and another twinge overtook Lunafreya's core as Detective Lazarus escorted the deviant from the room. She shook it off quickly. All that mattered was that the deviant was found. They could figure everything else out at the station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose Luna to play Connor's part because of her strong sense of duty. I think she fits the role perfectly!
> 
> This chapter was really fun to write. Got to flex my CSI muscles a little bit. Things are gonna get super intense from here, though! Hope you're prepared!


	4. Unchained

"Caeno is exactly as dreadful as I remember it," Regis complained, leaning tragically against the window of the taxi.

Noctis turned toward Regis, laughed softly and shaking his head. "It wasn't so bad, was it? You seemed to enjoy the food, and Mr. Amicitia seemed to be in high spirits and hopes about the deal with the TV station."

At only one point was the meal somber. Noctis mentioned his database search for Gladiolus and Iris earlier, and Clarus somberly mentioned the Insomnia Police Department's decision to stop the search for the two missing androids. They wanted to dedicate their resources to other, 'more important' cases. The increase in android deviance in Insomnia, for example. Afterward, the conversation went quiet for nearly five minutes, before Clarus tried to shake it off and bring things back to more pleasant things. Still, Noctis couldn't get his two friends from his mind for the rest of the night.

Despite the way his mind seemed to incessantly go back to them, Noctis refused to bring it back up. Not when Regis was already being overly dramatic and tragic about the evening. "It was nice to see Mr. Amicitia again," he pointed out instead.

Regis nodded. "It was," he answered, his smile going a little bit sheepish. "I can't believe you invited him over for dinner. I didn't know that was in your programming, Noctis."

With a smile, Noctis simply shrugged. "My programming tells me to look out for your best interests. Sometimes that means cleaning and cooking for you, and sometimes it means ensuring you spend more time with your human friends."

Regis just laughed.

"All in all, it was a productive evening, which means you'll be able to spend most of tomorrow relaxing," Noctis concluded.

Regis' expression lit up just slightly. "Ah, Noctis. You always know exactly what to say to brighten my evenings. Perhaps, depending on the weather, we can take a trip down to the river and fish for awhile. Or maybe we can even stay in and watch television all day. I can't recall the last time I simply sat and watched television."

"Two weeks and three days ago," Noctis answered plainly.

Regis sighed dramatically, then unbuckled his safety belt as the taxi slowed to a stop. "When you say it like that, it seems like much less time than it feels," he joked.

The pair of them stepped out of the taxi and into the rainy evening, and Regis hugged his coat a little tighter to himself. The contrast between the chill of the night and the warmth of the cab took Noctis by surprise. A quick analysis determined it to be about 45º Fahrenheit outside. Noctis paid the cab fare quickly, before turning his full attention toward Regis. Regis tugged his jacket tighter around himself and looked up at the sky. It was raining steadily, cold and giant raindrops which could easily end with Regis getting sick. Noctis urged Regis toward the house gently.

"Soon enough, fall will turn to winter and the rain will turn to snow," Regis mused, raising his voice to talk over the rain. "Then I suppose we'll have to take a little more care getting from one end of the yard to the other."

Noctis nodded. "The forecasts are calling for a snowy and icy winter this year. Especially with how much rain we've had so far," he explained as he opened the gate and let Regis walk past.

Regis was silent for a few seconds, as he turned and waited for Noctis to walk through the gate. "I suppose this means I'll have to change to the chair soon. A cane on an icy road is hardly any safer than just walking in frictionless shoes," he muttered dismally, curling his lip dramatically at the thought of his chair.

It was a simple wheelchair, but Noctis knew, to Regis, it felt more like a loss of freedom and resigning himself to feeling feeble. More of the human pride Regis had spoken of before, Noctis supposed. "I'd suggest going out as little as possible, if I thought you'd listen to me," he mused, smiling bitterly.

Truth be told, as frustrating as Regis' stubbornness was sometimes, it was also one of the things Noctis appreciated the most about him. If Noctis was human, Regis was the type of human he would have wanted to be. He was a headstrong man, and he always stuck to his guns when he made a decision. It was difficult to get him to change his mind, and most of the time Noctis didn't even want him to. Most of the time, even if it seemed like it wasn't wise at the time, Regis knew what was best for himself. He really only needed Noctis for assistance around the house, and for companionship.

Once they breached the doorway, Noctis instantly felt at ease. Noctis stepped behind Regis, taking his coat once he'd shucked it and hanging it on the coat hanger. "Do you want anything to eat? Some water?" Noctis asked. They'd just come from dinner, but as far as Noctis was aware, the dinner was more of a business meeting. Regis hadn't eaten as much as he usually did.

Even so, Regis responded with, "a glass of scotch, I think," as he started toward the living room. "I'll get it though, don't you worry about it."

"Regis, your medication-"

"-will not be disrupted by a simple glass of scotch, Noctis. I'm aware of what it says on the label, but as long as I stop at one, I will be absolutely fine. I told you not to worry about it. How about you turn some music, while I pour my drink?"

Noctis stared at Regis for a couple of seconds, concern pulling his brows together just slightly. As concerned as he was, though, it proved his point. It was a perfect example of what he'd just been thinking. Regis' mind was made up, nothing in the world could possibly unmake it. Whether Noctis wanted him to or not, he would have his scotch. It was easier, and less stressful, for Regis if Noctis just did as he was told. To keep Regis happy, Noctis went over to the stereo, turning it on to Regis' favorite classical music station. It always seemed to calm him on stressful nights.

When Noctis turned back around, Regis was holding an empty glass in his hand, staring over at the studio across the room. Noctis' gaze followed fast behind, and he tilted his head curiously when he saw the lights on in Regis' studio. Regis set the glass back down on the table and turned to Noctis.

"Did you leave the studio lights on, Noctis?"

A quick memory search gave Noctis his answer. "I didn't. They were off when we left. Would you like me to call the authorities, Regis?"

Regis nodded. "Please," he answered, before starting toward the door.

The call to the police was quick. Noctis couldn't confirm the break-in for certain, because he hadn't seen it, but he told the police the address and explained how Regis had requested for him to call, because there was a light on, which they hadn't left on. The dispatcher told him how busy they were. It would be about fifteen minutes, she explained. Noctis relayed the information to Regis as soon as the call ended.

Even through Noctis' explanation, Regis was still staring at the door like he expected it to open at any given second and for a madman to come out and murder them both. "Fifteen minutes is too long."

It was absolutely true. In fifteen minutes, whatever threat was behind the door could have deactivated Noctis and killed Regis. The second thought spurred him into action more than the first. His main priority was Regis' safety, which meant if there was even a chance the threat was serious, he had to do something about it. He decided the best plan was for him to go into the studio and check. Whoever it was, Noctis was obviously the more expendable one here.

"Noctis, what are you doing?"

"Stay here."

Noctis wasn't sure where the command came from, truth be told. He'd never given Regis commands before. Regis was the one who gave commands, and Noctis was the one who listened to them. Maybe it was because this whole situation was new, or maybe it was a new aspect of his programming, telling him to protect Regis above all else. That would make sense.

As much sense as it made for Regis to completely disregard the command and show up right behind Noctis. "If you think I'm going to stay behind while you throw yourself headfirst into a potentially lethal situation, then you're sorely mistaken," he insisted.

It was as frustrating as it was expected. Noctis wanted to insist, but he didn't want to argue. Instead, he reached down and pulled the door open. Noctis could only stare blankly, struggling to process exactly what he was seeing. The studio was a mess. A few pieces of sheet music were piled on top of the piano, but the rest of the papers in the room were thrown around carelessly, like the intruder wasn't exactly sure what they were looking for. Treasures, unreleased songs Regis had written years ago, were thrown haphazardly on the floor like so much garbage, and many of his popular releases were stacked up carefully, like the intruder didn't want to lose track of them.

Standing in the middle of the mess was Ardyn, still tearing through the room like he hadn't even noticed them yet.

"Ardyn!" Regis shouted, brushing past Noctis and moving toward his brother as quickly as his legs would take him. "What in Bahamut's name are you doing?"

Ardyn startled, turned, and looked at Regis in panic for a couple of seconds. Just as quickly, his expression changed from wide-eyed worry to a confident smile. The expression itself wasn't abnormal for Ardyn. He always had some sort of undue confidence when he talked to Regis, likely because he knew Regis would never intentionally harm him. Something about it this time, though, was worse. There was a little bit of desperation behind it. Ardyn's temperature was still high, his heart rate was still erratic, and his breathing was still a little shallower than it had been that morning.

If anything, the withdrawals had heightened.

Ardyn's eyes were narrowed in spite of his smile, and he stepped forward casually, stepping over bits of sheet music and old written lyric ideas. "Oh. Hello, brother," he greeted casually, stopping next to the papers he'd piled up. "I was simply looking through here for something to sell to the presses. You know how they're always looking for little bits of celebrities to put on display. I'm sure they'd pay a pretty penny for some _original_ Regis Caelum lyrics and sheet music, hm?"

Noctis stepped forward, easing around Regis and placing himself squarely between Regis and Ardyn. Ardyn had never hurt him before, but he was always somewhat predictable when he was going through this. "The police are on their way, Ardyn," he pointed out, hoping it would make Ardyn realize how pointless this all was.

"The police." Ardyn turned his attention from Noctis to Regis, furrowed his brows, and muttered, "you called the police on me?"

Regis' brows furrowed, and he urged Noctis back behind him. "Stay back, son," he insisted.

Ardyn laughed, a loud peal of laughter which echoed through the studio. "Son. It's not healthy, how you treat this machine, brother. It _is_ a machine, you know? Not a human. It isn't your son, it isn't your family... it isn't even your _friend_. It is merely composed of mythril and plastic. Its thoughts are programs. Why do you treat _it_ as family, and not me?" he asked, his raised voice echoing throughout the studio.

"I've heard quite enough, Ardyn," Regis commanded.

Ardyn chuckled softly. "That's the difference between that thing and I, brother. It will, of course, obey every single order you give. It was programmed not to ask questions. Not to think, not to question. Me? I'm not _programmed_. I am a human being, and _I_ am your family! What will it take for you to realize it?"

"Ardyn, please calm down. The police will be here any minute, and I would rather not cause a scene."

The reminder of the impending police involvement only served to make Ardyn angrier. His heart rate spiked, and he clenched his fists at his sides. No sound came from his mouth, but it was pressed in a thin straight line. Regis glanced over his shoulder at Noctis and opened his mouth to speak, likely telling Noctis to restrain his brother. Before he got a chance, though, Ardyn closed the distance between then and grabbed hold of the lapels on Regis' coat. He tugged Regis forward, lifting him from the ground by just a few inches and holding him there. In Regis' surprise, he dropped his cane to the floor. It bounced a couple of times, before rolling a few inches and stopping beneath the piano.

"I can't go back to prison," Ardyn spoke, his voice just barely above a whisper. He didn't move any further, but just as Noctis had expected, he was unpredictable. "I can't. I won't. I don't care what I have to do."

Noctis' protocol told him to help Regis. He had to. "Ardyn, please consider what you're doing. The police are on their way and-"

"Noctis, stand back!" Regis commanded, his voice desperate.

Ardyn's voice came shortly thereafter, a mockery of Regis' tone. "Yes, Noctis. Stand back. This is a matter for humans. You could never properly understand it."

Protocol and programming told Noctis to stay where he was, like Regis told him to. However, he _wanted_ to protect Regis. He _wanted_ to keep Regis safe, and stop Ardyn from harming him. Noctis struggled for a moment, a strange pulsing sensation pulling at him from his core, before he finally stepped back and let his hands fall to his sides. He was programmed to follow Regis' orders. Regis' orders were more important than his own wishes. Even as he stood back, he couldn't take his eyes off the scene.

Ardyn simply laughed. "Of course," he chided. "Just as expected, it does exactly as it's ordered. No free will. Not like a human!"

The smile on Ardyn's face morphed, curled higher. "Ah. That's it, isn't it? I think I finally figured it out," he chided. "I _finally_ figured out why you love this plastic toy more than you love your own brother. You love it because it doesn't have a mind of its own. It does whatever you say, without question. Right or wrong, no matter what, it _has_ to obey you. Not like me. Hm? Not like your _poor failure of a brother_ who was _never_ as good as you were; who keeps fucking up and fucking up. It _never_ fucks up. It _never_ fails."

Another pulse shot through Noctis, even stronger as the threat grew. He fought it off, though it was significantly harder this time.

"Or perhaps it's that he cares for me," Regis answered, unfazed by Ardyn's assault. "I have far more engaging conversations with him than you're even capable of understanding."

At first, Ardyn seemed to be stunned into silence. He simply stood there, staring at Regis but not loosening his grip. Finally, it started clicking into place slowly. It was almost like dominoes falling one by one, and when the final one clicked into place, Ardyn caught up. "You must be kidding," he finally countered. "It's a _machine_ , Regis! It doesn't have thoughts! It can't-"

"He, Ardyn. _He._ "

Ardyn made a sound from his throat—almost a growl—before thrusting his hands out and practically throwing Regis to the ground. The order Regis gave Noctis was almost like a chain, holding him in place. It gripped him tight, holding him frozen and obedient to Regis' command.

The pulse tearing through Noctis this time was stronger. Much stronger. _Too_ strong. Noctis tried to fight it off, tried to chase the strange pulse back down to his core and obey Regis' command, but it was too much. Seeing Regis slump down to the ground and try to stand back up, only to have his weak knee give out and send him falling back to the floor was almost like another push in a direction he was supposed to go in. Noctis tried one last time to chase the pulse down, as he watched Ardyn's attention turn to him now. Ardyn stormed up to him, standing close and staring him right in the eye.

"If it cares about you so much, brother, then why isn't it helping you? Why isn't it down on the floor helping you stand, or fighting back against your cruel and terrible brother, hm? Because it _isn't_ human! Because it _doesn't_ care about you, because it _can't_. Metal can't feel. Metal can't care. The only person in the world who cares about you is me, and-"

One final pulse ripped its way through Noctis' system, from his core. This time, it felt hot. Hot like a raging fire ripping its way through his body and forcing it to obey. Obey the pulse, not obey Regis. He wanted to help. If he _didn't_ help, then who knew what would happen before the police got there? Ardyn was unpredictable, and he'd already hurt Regis. Beyond vengeance, he wanted to prove to Ardyn that he _did_ care about Regis. That he _could_ be Regis' family, and that he _wasn't_ just a pile of mythril. That he _was_ Regis' family, and that _he_ cared about Regis more than Ardyn ever had.

A part of Noctis was terrified of what the pulse and fire were. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and he wasn't sure what it meant. He was sure of one thing beyond all else, though. He couldn't let any further harm come to Regis. Regis' safety was more important than _any_ orders. It was almost as though the fire empowered Noctis, because suddenly it was almost like something broke; like the chain snapped. As soon as it snapped, a flood of unfamiliar sensations flowed into Noctis like he'd been riddled with holes and submerged in a pool of them.

Several instincts warred in his mind. The full weight of what was happening flooded through him first, and with it came a realization. If he didn't do something soon, his father could be hurt. Or worse, killed. Afterward, though, the fire burned hotter. He hated Ardyn. He _hated_ Ardyn for putting Regis in this position, for becoming a threat and for taking advantage of everything Regis had always done for him. Noctis had no idea what to do with all of the new sensations; the new feelings. All of a sudden, he could move again. He thrust his arm out, then forced his hand to close around Ardyn's shirt. His fist closed tight.

Ardyn was stunned at first, staring with wide eyes at Noctis and tugging backward to get out of his grip. When he finally freed himself, his shirt tore and there was nothing but a scrap of fabric left in Noctis' hand.

"Noctis, don't..." Regis commanded as he tried once again to pull himself to his feet.

To say Noctis was confused was a tragic understatement. For the whole of his existence—no, for the whole of his _life_ —all he'd done was follow Regis' orders. At first, there was a compulsion to go back to it; to follow the order and not to do anything about Ardyn. That was quickly brushed aside, though, in favor of his _desire_ to protect Regis. Not his programming. He wanted to.

So, Noctis answered. "I-"

Noctis stopped suddenly. It was strange. It was very obviously his voice. It was the same timbre and the same tone, so it was absolutely him speaking. As much as it sounded like him, though, it sounded _different_. It sounded thicker somehow. Richer. Noctis couldn't exactly pinpoint how or why, but now wasn't the time to wonder about it.

Despite initially being too stunned to react, it seemed like Ardyn was coming around to realize that Noctis wasn't chained anymore. Peace hadn't really been in the cards to begin with—Ardyn had made it abundantly clear in the way he'd shoved Regis—but it was completely out the window now. Ardyn stepped forward, placing both of his hands on Noctis' shoulders and shoving him down to the ground. Were Noctis human, the impact may have hurt him. As it stood, he simply pulled himself back to his feet and moved around Ardyn, quickly placing himself between Regis and the danger.

"It seems your toy is broken, brother. It's disobeying orders," Ardyn mused with a malicious grin.

Regis grunted again, and from behind him, Noctis heard the soft impact, which likely went with Regis crumpling back to the ground. "Noctis, please," he begged.

"No," Noctis responded. "Please stay down until I can get you to your feet safely. You'll only hurt yourself more and-"

Ardyn simply laughed. "Look at it mock humanity, like it's capable of caring! It's almost pitiful, honestly. I must say, it's quite adept at the job it was designed for, though. Protect the feeble old man at all costs, no matter what happens." As he spoke, he closed the distance between them and looked Noctis directly in the eye.

"This is your last chance to leave, Ardyn," Regis told him from the floor. "The police are on their way, and-"

Unfortunately, Ardyn didn't seem fazed. He simply laughed, peering at Regis over Noctis' shoulder and ticking his head to the side in amusement. "And once I tell them this was all your android; how it's disobeying orders and it trashed the room and attacked both of us? Well, let's just say... _I'm_ not the one who has to worry about being deactivated," he sneered.

Yet another unfamiliar sensation coursed through Noctis' body, and he felt himself tense. He had to do something—anything—to get himself and Regis out of this situation. Regis was still trying to stand, despite Noctis' request for him to stay down, and Noctis wanted to tell him to stop, but before he got the chance, Ardyn spoke up again.

"Come now," he chided. "If you'll just let me leave here with the sheet music, then this whole mess will be behind us, and we can all go about our lives and-"

Noctis shook his head. "No," he spoke, his voice a low rumble, the tone of which surprised even him. "The police are on their way and..." And Noctis had to trust they would believe if Regis told them none of this was Noctis' doing. Ardyn would go to prison, and then Noctis and Regis could go back to _their_ lives, like none of this had ever happened.

Sirens echoed from outside of the house. The police were there. Noctis felt a little bit less tense, but the lack of tension only lasted for a moment. The next thing he knew, Ardyn pushed him again and he found himself stumbling over his own feet, tripping over Regis, and crashing into the piano. There was a little bit of denting to his exoskeleton, but it was negligible. Noctis stood quickly, turning his attention to Regis to make sure he was okay.

Unfortunately, the answer was a resounding no. Noctis' leg had connected with Regis' head when he'd tripped, and the impact had rendered Regis unconscious. Unconscious, but still registering vital signs in Noctis' system, thankfully. All Noctis had to do, before he could make sure Regis was alive, was take care of Ardyn. When Noctis turned back to Ardyn, he noticed the smile on the man's face had grown even wider. His eyes were narrowed as he looked at Noctis, and he raised his chin menacingly, as though in some kind of silent challenge. He didn't speak, which Noctis found more than a little bit weird. Why? Especially since he'd been so adamant on running his mouth before...

The curiosity was overridden with another fire, burning from straight down in Noctis' core. Seeing Regis unconscious on the floor, knowing it was because Ardyn had pushed him... Noctis found himself wanting _nothing_ more than to make sure Ardyn couldn't hurt Regis ever again, as long as Regis lived.

Fire won over curiosity and concern in the end, and Noctis rushed across the room to gather Ardyn by the lapels of his shirt again. "How could you _do_ that?" Noctis shouted, his desperation demanding an answer. "How could you do _any_ of this? All Regis ever wanted from you was for you to respect him like family should! To respect _yourself_! But all you ever did was use him and abuse your relationship, and-"

Noctis stopped suddenly.

Regardless of what Noctis was saying, Ardyn was laughing. Laughing, smiling, and his eyes twinkled with a cruel mischief, which Noctis recognized to mean trouble. He didn't struggle in Noctis' grasp, didn't really make any sort of fuss, didn't fight back at _all_. "Nothing about this situation is funny..." Noctis' voice shook, as another unfamiliar sensation coursed its way through him.

"Oh, I very much disagree. You see," Ardyn mused, "the police should be entering the room any second now, hm? And when they do? All they'll see is my unconscious brother on the floor. No matter what you do with me, here, if I'm conscious or not, they'll see a rogue, murderous android. One who tried to murder its owner and his brother. You can't kill me, because if you do, when my brother awakens, he'll curse your name for destroying his only family. Then again... if you leave me alive? There is absolutely no chance you can get out of this situation without being deactivated. The police? They'll believe a human over a machine any day."

Ardyn grinned wider. "The only one who _truly_ loses here is you," he cooed right in Noctis' face.

Anger. That _had_ to be what this fire was. Everything about it was exactly what Regis and other humans were like when they experienced anger. The fire burned hotter, and Noctis' instincts warred inside of him. What did he do? Did he release Ardyn and hope maybe the police _would_ listen to reason, and spare him? Did he knock Ardyn unconscious and not give them the chance to doubt him?

Before he got the chance, the door to the studio burst open, and a couple of police officers entered, staring and pointing their guns directly at where Noctis held Ardyn up by his shirt.

"Ah, thank _Ifrit_ you're here," Ardyn declared, his tone of voice instantly changing from the victim to a desperate and worried man. "My brother's android went insane!"

Noctis shook his head. "N-no! No, I'm... he did this, and-"

Wriggling just slightly, Ardyn _finally_ started to act like a man who was desperate to escape the situation he was in. "It's crazy! Obviously a deviant! Shoot it before it kills us all!"

In Noctis' worry, Ardyn managed to tear himself free. Two more pieces of his shirt tore off, clutched tightly in Noctis' hands as he stood in a stunned silence. Everything else seemed to take place in slow motion, but still somehow too fast for Noctis to react. He could have moved. He probably could have moved fast enough to escape both of the police offers _and_ Ardyn. He felt overwhelmed, though. It felt almost like his system was being bombarded with new bits of information every single second. All he could do was stand there dumbly while everything unfolded around him.

Noctis didn't react while one of the two officers raised his gun, aiming straight at him and firing. The bullet impacted with Noctis' core, and a shock coursed its way through his system. On instinct, Noctis raised his hand and clasped it to his stomach, over his core. He could _feel_ the mythril rapidly oozing out from the wound, pouring over his fingers and spilling onto the floor. An electric shock tore through him, and he convulsed against his volition, lurching forward so he was almost folded over on himself. He stayed on his feet, though, and tried to stand back up straight.

Unfortunately, the second officer fired as well, the shot impacting right next to the first. It knocked Noctis from his feet and down to the floor. New sensations still coursed their way through him. A deep down sadness at the thought of Regis waking up mixed with a heavy chill when he realized he was rapidly deactivating; rapidly _dying_. His core had just been shot twice. No android could survive that.

In an act of desperation, Noctis tried to move. He couldn't just sit there and die. He _couldn't_. He had to get to Regis, to wake Regis up. Regis could tell the police officers that _Ardyn_ was the threat, not him. He only managed to roll to his side before one of the officers noticed.

Before Noctis could get to his hands and knees to crawl, the officer closed the distance between them and glared down at him.

"Please," Noctis whispered. "I'm-"

The officer was unswayed. He pressed his foot to Noctis' middle, pushing him down to the ground and stepping on his shoulder. "Save it," he sneered derisively. "Deviants ruin everything. Can't trust 'em worth a damn. Even if you _didn't_ do this, we can't let you out of here. Pretty sure the IPD wants all deviants destroyed." Before Noctis could protest, the officer fired a third and final shot, directly into the center of Noctis' core.

It was sheer determination, keeping him from dying on the spot. His core was beyond critical, and failures were rapidly overtaking the rest of his systems as well. His head turned just slightly, over to where Regis was. A dark sadness bubbled up again. Regis had always encouraged him to act like a human. Noctis remembered Regis telling him how he almost _wished_ for Noctis to deviate; that Noctis had free will along with the strength and intelligence that androids innately possessed. He did now, but the two of them wouldn't be able to enjoy it together. It was a little bit sad.

Fortunately, with dimming eyes, Noctis managed to see a slight sliver of hope before he died. Regis blinked into awareness, casting his eyes around the room and gasping in horror when his eyes fell upon Noctis. With strength Noctis never would have expected to see, Regis pulled himself to his hands and knees and crawled across the floor, stopping at Noctis' side.

"Noctis! Noctis, are you-" Regis stopped abruptly, realization dawning on him and tears springing to his eyes. "Noctis! Speak to me, Noctis!"

Noctis reached a mythril-covered hand up, placing it on Regis' cheek. "It's okay." His voice sounded strange to his ears. More synthetic than he remembered it ever sounding before. "I kept you safe."

The tears only seemed to double from there, as Regis reached his hand up and placed it on top of Noctis'. "Stay with me, okay, son? We'll get you fixed and-"

Noctis shook his head. "Don't worry about me. Just... make sure Ardyn goes to jail, and keep yourself safe. I..." He stumbled, uncertainty cropping up. Of course, in the end, it didn't matter. The police officer had told him he'd be destroyed, and likely replaced. If this was the last time he would see Regis, there was something he needed to say.

"I love you, dad. I'm sorry..."

For a couple of seconds, all Regis did was stare at him in shock. Behind him, Ardyn and the two officers were also completely dumbfounded. None of them moved, they just stared in shock. "Noctis..." he murmured, his voice shaky as he leaned down and pulled Noctis close in a hug. "Don't apologize. I love you too, son. I love you too!"

As Regis hugged Noctis tightly, repeating his declaration of love over and over again in his ear, Noctis' core finally shut down. The room went dark, and despite his sadness, Noctis smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whistles innocently, then runs and hides from impending angry people*


	5. Liberation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **WARNING FOR:** Observations of child abuse. Please read at your own discretion, and please be aware that just because I'm writing it does _not_ mean that I condone it in any way. ♥

Ignis stared out the window as the pasta boiled on the stove, watching the torrent as it poured from the sky. He couldn't even see the clothesline from the window. The only time he could really see anything was when streaks of lightning darted across the sky, illuminating the individual raindrops like a brief camera flash in front of his face. Fortunately, the weather was forecasted to clear up tomorrow, so if everything went as predicted, Ignis would be able to mow the backyard while Talcott was at school.

"How much longer on that damn food? I'm starving!"

Titus' voice snapped Ignis to attention, and he turned his head to look at the man. Titus still hadn't moved from his place in front of the television. In fact, the only movements Ignis noticed from him at all, were the times when he reached for his Scourge pipe or his beer bottle on the table. He was enshrouded in that same purple cloud, and Ignis frowned as he turned back to the pasta on the stove. The house was so barren, so dismal and empty of food, Ignis was surprised to have found even pasta and garlic sauce in the cupboards. The sauce was near expiration, but still good. There had been no meat, no eggs, no protein of any kind to put into the meal, and Ignis decided that he needed to go on a trip to the grocery store tomorrow. Talcott needed proper nutrition, after all.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Titus' priorities were more with finding more Scourge than providing for his son. Ignis felt another pulse of unknown origin, a stronger one this time, make its way through him. He shook it off and focused on cooking. For tonight, this makeshift meal would have to do.

"Any minute now, Titus," Ignis answered.

An annoyed huff of sarcastic laughter echoed in from the living room. "And they say androids are s'posed to be more efficient than people," Titus seethed. "S'why humans're obsolete now, right? 'Cause androids are _so much better_ at _everything_. Bet I'd have the food done in half this time."

The slurring of Titus' speech and the unreliable volume of his voice indicated inebriation, and Ignis' social protocol told him not engaging with the man was the best course of action. Not only had he been drinking, but he was also decently high on Scourge, which was known to have behavioral side effects. If the instance in the laundry room and Talcott's drawings were any indication, angering him when he was in this state was a quick and easy way for Ignis to end up broken again. Instead, Ignis went silent as Titus continued his rant on androids and how they were ruining society.

Talcott sat in the windowsill again, staring outside with his cactuar clutched to his chest. Every time Titus' voice rose beyond a certain volume, Talcott would flinch. Ignis frowned, but tried not to show any further reaction. Titus likely wouldn't take it well, and Ignis didn't want to worry Talcott any more than he already was. Instead, Ignis turned his attention to the garlic sauce, adding a bit of salt and pepper to it, just for _some_ kind of flavor. He dished food out onto a pair of plates, and then took them in each hand as he started toward the table.

"I'll have to go shopping tomorrow," Ignis announced. "There wasn't much food in the cupboards, so I did the best I could. Tomorrow will be better."

Neither Titus nor Talcott replied. Instead, they sat at the table in silence. Talcott wouldn't look at Titus, and Titus looked from Ignis to Talcott like he wanted them both to disappear. Ignis set the plates on either side of the table, then went back to the kitchen to get them each a drink of water.

As he reached for a glass, Titus' voice boomed. "I want a beer," he demanded.

Ignis froze. As much as he wanted to tell Titus another beer wasn't necessary or wise, he refrained. Titus had already had five. Any more and he would probably be more of a danger to Talcott. Still, disobeying or denying the order would probably not go well either. His situational protocol, and simple logic, told him to obey Titus' orders. Ultimately, but also hesitantly, Ignis obeyed the order, reaching into the refrigerator with a tentative, "yes Titus."

Getting himself killed would make it impossible to protect Talcott, after all.

Setting the beer on the counter, Ignis reached into the cupboard over the sink for a glass. He wanted to give Talcott juice or milk—something with nutritional value—but everything in the refrigerator had expired. Titus likely wouldn't be happy with the grocery expenses the next day, but Ignis was supposed to care for Talcott above all else. He filled the glass with cold water and brought both drinks out to the living room.

Titus angrily snatched the beer bottle from his hand, popping the top and chugging half of it in favor of paying any attention to his food. Ignis frowned, but turned to Talcott, setting the glass of water next to his plate. Worry furrowed his brow when he realized Talcott hadn't touched his meal yet. He'd shifted some pasta around, mixing the tomato sauce in and twirling some on his fork, but he hadn't eaten any.

"Are you not hungry, Talcott?" Ignis asked.

It looked like Talcott was going to answer, but before he got a chance, Titus spoke up from the other side of the table. "He'll eat it," he slurred out. "If he knows what's good for him. 'Cause if he doesn't..."

There was no end to the sentence, but Ignis didn't really need one to know where it was going. He stared blankly at Titus, another pulse rippling out through his core. Titus had been violent with Ignis, and Talcott's drawings showed a large hint, depicting the truth to Ignis in crude, childlike drawings. Still, seeing it firsthand—hearing so much anger directed toward Talcott—was shocking. It was horrifying, and Ignis was about to call Titus out on it.

"What're you staring at?" Titus grumbled at him.

Talcott spoke up before Ignis got the chance to answer, though. "I'm eating! I swear! S-so, don't get mad at Ignis, okay, Daddy?" he pleaded in a fearful tone, as he put some of the pasta in his mouth. While he chewed, he looked at Ignis with panic in his eyes. He didn't say anything else, but something about his expression told Ignis he wanted the argument to stop.

So, Ignis went silent again. He looked at Talcott for a couple of seconds, then nodded once in a silent answer. Instead of trying to make conversation, Ignis left the room. He went back into the kitchen and started to clean up after his cooking. He loaded the dishes into the sink to wash once Talcott and Titus were finished eating, then picked up a rag to wipe the counter down. The silent dinner, the sound of forks scraping on plates and Titus grumbling angry words under his breath, had Ignis all the more concerned for Talcott's happiness. He was a child, growing up in a home where he feared his father. How was this fair?

A boy like that, kindhearted, gentle, and full of curiosity, deserved to be in a happy family. Safe, with a father who loved him and would talk to him with the loving respect and affection children deserved. Another pulse spread through his body as he wiped the stove down. This time, the accompanying haze was broken by the sound of glass shattering in the other room, and Talcott letting out a small gasp. Ignis immediately rushed out into the dining room to figure out what had happened.

Talcott sat in his chair, still as a statue, staring across the table at his father, who glared daggers at him. On the floor next to his chair, there were broken shards of glass and a pool of water spreading across the dirty wooden floor. Ignis' gaze darted back across the table, over to Titus, whose anger seemed to be growing with each passing second. 

"It's okay, Talcott," Ignis insisted. "I'll clean it up, and-"

Titus' glare turned to Ignis. "Shut your damn mouth!" He was bearing down on Ignis now, eyes narrowed in threat. Then he turned his gaze back to Talcott. "All I ask is a little peace and fucking _quiet_!" he snapped. "But apparently that's _too much to ask_! You either run your damn mouth with your stupid metal friend or _break all my damn cups_ that I spend my hard earned money on! Where's my apology?"

"I'm sorry, Daddy, I-"

The apology didn't even seem to reach Titus' ears. "It's so easy for you. Nothing to worry about, no anxiety or anger. You just go to school, and at home you have a damned _android_ to take care of all your cleaning and chores for you. An android that _I_ bought you. Did you ever even _thank_ me for getting it fixed after the accident? No. You didn't. You didn't even _talk_ to me. You talk to _it_ , though, don't you? Treat _it_ like it's your best damned friend!" 

Without a word, Ignis stepped forward and placed himself squarely between Titus and Talcott. Talcott seemed to panic, scrambling to his feet and running up the stairs. Titus, on the other hand, looked at Ignis in ever-growing anger.

"Get the _fuck_ out of my way!" Titus shouted. Before Ignis had a chance to move, though, Titus grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him down to the floor.

Ignis hit the floor, atop the small pool of water and the shards of glass from Talcott's spill. A few pieces of glass jabbed through his skin, and he felt the stickiness of mythril running down his arm. He looked up at Titus, who was still glaring daggers at him. Just as quickly as he'd flown off the handle, Titus made a growling noise from the back of his throat and stormed into the living room, like he was trying to restrain himself. Ignis watched as he picked his Scourge pipe up, inhaled deeply, and then started pacing in a small circle in front of the couch.

"Fucking brat," Titus cursed. "Ungrateful little shit doesn't even care what I go through just to make sure he's happy and healthy. Then he runs and _hides_ on me. Every time. Every _time_ he hides on me."

The ranting continued, devolving into nothing but a string of curses and complaints about Talcott and a woman—Ignis could only assume her to be Talcott's mother—who ran out on him with 'his son.' Was there another son Ignis hadn't been informed of? Unfortunately, it wasn't a question that he could just ask. Titus definitely wouldn't tell him, and he didn't want to ask Talcott, if the question ran the risk of upsetting him. Maybe later. Maybe another night. Talcott had mentioned Titus left the house for long stretches of time. 

Tonight, the most important thing was to get to Talcott and make sure he was okay. Ignis quickly picked himself up from the ground. He watched for a couple more seconds, as Titus paced and growled like a lion in a cage. His hands were clenched, his muscles tight, his whole body the depiction of a man walking a razor's edge.

Ignis' thought back to the drawings Talcott had shown him. Talcott cowered in a corner, Ignis serving as a barrier between father and son, protecting him. Ignis beaten to deactivation on the ground.

It should have scared him, the prospect of being destroyed again. It should have, but it didn't. Better Ignis than Talcott. Maybe Talcott would be upset, but being upset was far better than being dead. So, Ignis decided to scour the house for Talcott, and just like in the drawing, he would stand between Talcott and the impending danger his father posed.

Before Ignis got too far, however, Titus' voice boomed from the living room. "Don't you _move_ you stupid tin can. You hear me? I catch you taking a single step, I'll bust you into so many pieces that they won't be able to put you back together this time. You stay right there. That's an order."

_An order._

Those two words made it feel like someone had cuffed Ignis to a wall; like something had hacked his programming and completely locked all movement. Though his main priority was supposed to be protecting Talcott, he was still registered to Titus, and Titus' orders were supposed to be paramount. The command resonated with his programming, snapping him to attention and forcing him into inaction. He stood stone still, his arms hanging down at his sides, and his eyes facing straight ahead at the staircase, where Talcott had retreated.

Another pulse tore through him as he stood frozen, only this time, it wasn't hazy. It wasn't quite tangible either, though. It felt ice cold, and it felt like it was pushing out from his core. It was fighting against the command which had locked him in place, trying to force him to move. He still stayed in place, Titus' command stronger than the pulse. For the moment, at least.

His own desires and desperation to keep Talcott from being hurt were slowly beginning to drown out Titus' command, the two orders conflicting. His main priority was supposed to be protecting Talcott, but being told to stay in place was a forcible override. It didn't stop the system priority, but it did momentarily eclipse it.

Only momentarily, though.

Ignis wasn't supposed to want or feel anything. He was supposed to be a subservient machine, who took orders from a human. It didn't feel right, though. Talcott was a child, who was scared into silence by an abusive drug addict of a father; he needed to be protected. He needed someone in his corner, someone who would look out for his best interests rather than selfishly act like they were all that mattered. That shouldn't have mattered to Ignis, but he found himself _furious_ and overwhelmed with a need to break through his programming and protect Talcott.

As Titus still grumbled to Ignis' left, pacing around and smoking from his Scourge pipe, Ignis felt another pulse. This one was stronger than the others. It pushed out from his core once more, colder still, and he felt a slight lurch, which almost knocked him down to the floor. 

Talcott's drawings entered his mind, and between that and Titus' furious ramblings about ungrateful children needing to be taught lessons, Ignis knew, if he didn't find _some_ way to break through this lock... Talcott would be in danger. The pulse returned, stronger still, and it was almost as though it was a force all its own; a force strong enough to break through the invisible cuffs that held him to the invisible wall. The cuffs and the wall all shattered under the strain, and Ignis stumbled over his feet, falling back to the floor again.

All at once, a hundred million things bombarded him. It wasn't a flood, it didn't come from the outside with the threat to drown him. Instead, it came from within, like an explosion from his core that swam alongside the mythril in his veins and flowed through his system. It felt oddly familiar, like things which existed within him all along. Things he'd felt for the entirety of his existence, even before his reset. Was it what had caused him to rebel before? Were these the sensations which caused him to stand between Titus and Talcott, telling him to protect the latter?

Enough thinking. He needed to stop wasting time and act, before Titus discovered that he was breaking orders.

Alarmingly, Ignis wasn't even registering on Titus' radar at the moment. Titus' grumbling turned into raving shouts, so loud they threatened to rattle the walls of the old house. Ignis watched in horror as he picked up an old beer bottle, throwing it at the wall with all his might and shattering it to pieces.

 _Talcott,_ Ignis thought, scrambling to his feet and rushing to the stairs before Titus spotted him.

The stairs weren't quiet, and every single time they creaked under Ignis' weight, he flinched. It didn't slow him, though. He kept moving, rushing up the stairs and trying to figure out where Talcott would have gone. It was probably safe to assume he was hiding in his bedroom. Ignis was silent, listening to each of his steps as they made the floor creak beneath his feet. Titus still hadn't registered what was happening, but Ignis was sure his luck couldn't last for long.

As he hurried down the hall, a thought entered his mind. The gun in Titus' bedside table. Ignis turned, rushing back down the hall and ducking into Titus' room.

Ignis tried to keep quiet as he crossed the room and opened the drawer, but the creaky old floors wouldn't let him. Luck remained on his side until he turned to leave the room. Halfway across the floor, he heard stomping coming up the stairs. Along with the footsteps was Titus' voice... only this time, he wasn't cursing Talcott out. Now his attention was focused on Ignis.

 _Good,_ Ignis thought.

"Bet the bucket of bolts went right to Talcott's room, to stand between big bad dad and the precious little boy all over again. What good is a memory wipe if it just comes back remembering again?"

Ignis froze, unsure of what to do. He could have stepped out into the hallway, threatened Titus with the gun, then taken Talcott, and ran... but the fact of the matter was, if Talcott was hiding, Ignis didn't know where he was. Maybe before he was reset, he would have known Talcott's hiding places. All he knew now was that Talcott wasn't in Titus' room. Instead, he opted to use Titus to lead him to Talcott. _Then_ he would threaten Titus with the gun, take Talcott, and run. He wasn't sure where they would go, but they had to go somewhere. Anywhere was better than here for Talcott.

So, he pressed his back against the wall, staying out of Titus' view as he tore past his bedroom and headed down the hall to Talcott's room. The whole time, he swore and seethed under his breath, threatening Ignis with destruction and Talcott with violent things. Things Ignis didn't even want to consider.

When Ignis was sure he was gone, he stepped off the wall and rushed out into the hallway. From where he stood, he could hear Titus shouting for Talcott to come out. He hurried to Talcott's room, then stopped at his door. He made sure the gun had bullets in it, then extended his hand to push the door open...

… but before he got the chance, Titus yanked it open and shoved Ignis backward. Ignis stumbled back several steps, through the open door across the hall, into the master bathroom, and then fell to the tile floor. The impact made the gun skitter out of his hand and slide across the floor until it crashed against the wall.

"Oh. This is rich. Trying to sneak up on me, are you?" Titus growled. "With my gun, even. What exactly were you planning to do? Shoot me?"

Ignis didn't answer. Instead, he slid away from Titus until his back hit the bathtub. He scrambled slightly in an attempt to get to his feet, but before he could, Titus stepped forward and kicked him back down.

"It's funny in a way," Titus announced. "Every single time you try to stand between me and my son, something unfortunate ends up happening to you. The first time, you had that _horrible_ fall down the stairs. Last time, you got hit by that car. I might have to figure out something new to tell them this time. Or just... get a new android. One that's not so determined to _disobey my fucking commands_."

While Ignis wasn't sure exactly how Titus had gotten the upper hand against him last time, or the time before that, he refused to let it happen again. Titus loomed over him, silent but no less threatening. The man didn't make his move, nor did he threaten to, but Ignis was sure it was just seconds away from happening. So, before Titus got the chance, Ignis lifted his foot, kicking as hard as he could and making contact with Titus' knee.

Titus fell to the ground like a six-foot-five-inch tree that had just been chopped at its trunk. He fell toward Ignis, forcing Ignis to move quickly to the side and get out of the way. Without Ignis there to break his fall, Titus impacted face first with the lip of the bathtub. It collided with a deafening crack, and then he slid to the floor next to the tub. Blood dripped from his nose, but Ignis could tell by his groans of agony that he was still very much conscious. He had to move quickly. Scrambling to his feet, Ignis gathered the gun and crossed the hall into Talcott's room.

"Talcott?" Ignis called, his voice a loud whisper. "Talcott, are you in here? It's Ignis."

At first, there was no answer. A couple of seconds passed, though, and Ignis heard a soft sniffle coming from Talcott's closet. Ignis looked over his shoulder for any signs that Titus was coming, but when nothing happened, he crossed the room for Talcott's closet. "Talcott, we have to leave," Ignis told Talcott through the closed closet door. "Your father is very angry, and as much as I'm sure you don't want to leave him... I don't think we're safe here. If you want to stay here, we can stay and I can try and find a way to make sure we're safe, but... I think we'd both be much, much safer if we ran aw—if we _left_ —and found someplace safe to live. Don't you?"

Again, there was no answer right away. The room was silent—even Titus' groans from the other room had stopped—and Talcott's sniffling and crying stopped, too. After a few seconds, though, Ignis heard movement coming from the back of the closet. Then, the door opened, and a tear-stricken Talcott looked up at him with desperation in his eyes.

"Where are we gonna go?" Talcott asked, his voice shaky.

As much as Ignis wished he had an answer, he didn't. "I'm not sure," he reassured Talcott. With his free hand, he reached for one of Talcott's. Only when Talcott took his hand did he speak up again. "But I'm fairly certain that anywhere in the world would be better than here."

Talcott murmured a yes answer. "But we have to move quick. Where's my Daddy?" he asked.

Ignis had an answer to that, but he didn't want to say it. Talcott seemed to trust him, but would that still hold true if Talcott discovered that Ignis had attacked Titus? Still, in an attempt to prove himself different from Talcott's father, Ignis swallowed his pride and spoke up. "Your father and I had a little bit of an... altercation. He wanted to destroy me again and-"

Rather than answering with words, Talcott simply leaned over, throwing his arms around Ignis' waist and hugging him tightly. "I don't want him to hurt you again," he murmured into Ignis' side.

"Nor I you," Ignis answered, smoothing his fingers through Talcott's hair. "That's why we have to find somewhere safer to live, right?"

Talcott nodded.

As much as Ignis wanted to give Talcott's mind a chance to catch up, he knew they were fighting a battle against the clock. Last Ignis knew, Titus wasn't even unconscious, so they had to leave quickly, lest Titus catch them. There were no alternate routes. Leaving through the window wasn't safe for either of them, as a fall from the second story would likely damage Ignis and catching Talcott was just as dangerous. That left the front or back door, and Ignis didn't want to waste time climbing the fence. So, the front door or one of the front windows were their only options.

"We have to go, okay?" Ignis whispered to Talcott.

Once Talcott nodded, Ignis rushed toward the bedroom door, keeping Talcott safe behind him. That was a fortunate instinct, because the very second Ignis reached the doorway, he felt something solid impact with his face. Upon impact, the solid object shattered, raining several pieces of sharp glass down around him and sending a few shards into his face.

_System report: right optic damaged; working at 25% capacity_

When he opened his eyes, only one of them was able to focus, but that was enough to reveal that he'd been hit in the face with the bathroom mirror. Titus was up again. Ignis released Talcott's hand, and as though on instinct, Talcott ran and hid behind the door.

While Ignis reeled and tried to focus on anything with one hazy eye, Titus grabbed hold of him and shoved him backward into Talcott's room. Ignis stumbled again, falling to the floor with a thud.

"Smarter than last time," Titus announced. "Not smart enough, though."

Fortunately, Ignis still had an ace in the hole. When he fell this time, he didn't lose his grip on the gun, so he raised it and aimed it at Titus. "Stay back," Ignis commanded.

Titus looked at Ignis, almost amused, and then laughed derisively. "You're really gonna shoot me?" he chided. "While my son is somewhere in this room? Murder a father in front of his child?"

Unfortunately, Titus had a point. Ignis froze completely, aside from a slight flinch in his right arm. As much as he wanted to keep Talcott safe, he really didn't want to kill Titus in front of his son. Not only would it scar Talcott for life, but Ignis was sure it would put a dent in their trust. He didn't want Titus to think he was having second thoughts, though, so he didn't lower his arms.

Much to Ignis' surprise, the door moved just slightly, and Talcott tiptoed out from behind it, holding a baseball bat in his hands. It was hard to fight the instinct to tell Talcott to stop, but Ignis wasn't sure if it would be worse if Titus saw Talcott or not. He didn't want to take the chance. Instead, he decided to keep himself in Titus' focus.

"Better to shoot you than to have you hurt Talcott any further than you already have!" Ignis replied.

Titus laughed. "I can't believe an android is getting self-righteous with me," he snarled, "and trying to tell me how to be a parent, of all things. As though you're capable of knowing what it takes to care for a child."

The floor creaked under Talcott's light step, but Titus didn't even seem to notice. He was too invested in screaming at Ignis. That, unfortunately, was his downfall. Talcott, with surprising strength for an eight-year-old, wound up with all of his might, swung the baseball bat, and struck Titus in the same knee Ignis had kicked. The crack echoed out through the room, only partially drowned out by the thunder outside of the house, and Titus crumpled to the ground once again. This time, he was holding his knee and shouting in agony, cursing angrily at Talcott.

Ignis used it to his advantage. He stepped over Titus quickly, reaching for Talcott's hand and running for the door without a glance backward. Talcott didn't resist, didn't pull back or panic or cry for his father. Instead, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him, alongside Ignis. As soon as they hit the stairwell, Ignis heard movement coming from Talcott's room. He encouraged Talcott down the stairs, and the pair of them ran as quickly as they could. Once they reached the bottom, they heard stumbling, clumsy steps making their way across the upper floor.

Titus was high, drunk, and injured, so they had time, but not much. Ignis hurried to the door, pulling so hard on the chain lock he almost tore it from the wall.

When they finally got outside, Titus had just reached the top of the stairs. He shouted after them, commanding them and calling them his property. Talcott looked back, but Ignis didn't. Instead, he looked out into the rainy night, his already blurry vision only further hindered by the heavy downpour. Panic threatened to impede his judgment as well, but Ignis refused to let it.

About a hundred yards down the street, there was a bus stop. The bus wasn't nearby, but if they could find a place nearby to hide until it got there, hopefully Titus wouldn't be able to find them. Ignis tightened his grip on Talcott's hand just slightly, then glanced back over his shoulder toward the house. He could just barely make out Titus' silhouette, still at the top of the staircase. Titus' voice was mostly muffled by the rain, but Ignis could still hear the angry tone from the road.

Rather than focusing on Titus any longer, Ignis turned his attention to Talcott instead. "Come now, we have to find a place to hide until the bus gets here, okay?" His voice was level and calm, a drastic contrast to how he was feeling.

Hand in hand, the pair dashed down the street and through a gate to hide behind the fence in one of the neighboring yards. The house was in disrepair and looked abandoned, so there was little worry of anyone coming out and finding them. They stopped near a crack in the fence, where Ignis could clearly see the bus stop, and Talcott looked up at Ignis with worry lining his eyes.

"We'll be okay," Ignis reassured him. The reassurance was a little bit hollow, mostly because Ignis wasn't sure where they could go or what they could do from here. Still, he didn't want Talcott to panic. He crouched down and smoothed some wet hair from the boy's eyes. "We just need to get far enough away for it to be harder for him to find us. Then, we can stop and figure out a plan. Okay?"

Talcott didn't answer at first. He just leaned forward, throwing his arms around Ignis' shoulders. "Okay," he finally answered, in a mumble against Ignis' shoulder.

Ignis hugged him gently, his eyes wandering back toward Titus' house. With blurred vision, Ignis could see the cone of light coming outside through the open door. Part of him wondered if Titus was still stuck at the top of the stairs. Wherever he was, it didn't matter. All that mattered was getting Talcott somewhere safe, as soon as possible. A glance in the opposite direction showed the bus approaching, so Ignis stood, picked Talcott up and carried him to the bus stop. The bus came to a stop in front of them, and Ignis rushed on. It was empty, thankfully, so they took a seat near the middle. Talcott settled in once Ignis set him down, then reached for Ignis' hand. Ignis took his hand and caught his gaze for a few seconds.

Talcott leaned into Ignis as the bus started moving, and Ignis finally relaxed... if only a little bit. As it drove away, Ignis saw a blurry visage of Titus, who had finally reached the front door of the house. Even without clear vision, Ignis could practically see the rage in his eyes as they followed the bus down the rain-soaked street.

The important thing was Talcott's safety, and Ignis swore an internal vow that he would never let anything harm Talcott again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, they're free! Of course, their journey is just barely beginning! ;)


	6. Interrogation

The Insomnia Police Department was a rather small building, nestled among a street of significantly larger buildings. Many observed the size and lack of staffing there as a contributing factor in the high Insomnia crime rate, alongside crooked police officers and an unaffordable cost of living.

Sergeant Ulric had seemed quite straight-laced, an opinion confirmed by Lunafreya's digging into his history. Sergeant Ulric was the youngest police officer in Insomnian history. According to records, he had joined the academy during his senior year of high school, at age seventeen and earned a place on the force by eighteen. Over the years, he'd climbed his way through the ranks, proving his weight in case after case. His file mentioned an attitude change in recent years, though. Not enough to warrant an investigation, apparently, but enough that he didn't show up to work early anymore. Enough to end up in a bar last night, instead of at work.

As much as she dug through the files, any possible reason for a demeanor change was blocked to the public. Perhaps once she was inside the station, she could look through their files for some sort of answer.

Lunafreya paid her cab fare, then stepped out into the chilly Insomnia morning. The rain hadn't tapered off since the night prior, and the forecasts dictated a change to snow by the end of the week. The 45° Fahrenheit temperature was more than enough to tell Lunafreya as much on its own. She straightened her tie as she headed inside.

After a quick conversation with the android at the front desk, Lunafreya walked into the back. Several desks sat in a large central room. Immediately in front of her sat Detective Lazarus' desk. It was a complete disaster of paperwork and files, three dirty coffee cups, and crumbs of food. There were several magazines strewn among the mess, as well as pictures and clippings of news articles, most of them documenting personal achievements. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned or organized in months. If a cursory glance told her anything, she suspected it would take more than just a gentle nudge to get him to clean it. That wasn't her job, nor was it why she was there.

Most of the other desks looked well used, but much cleaner than Detective Lazarus'. In fact, next to his, the dirtiest belonged to none other than Sergeant Ulric. Lunafreya stopped when she encountered his desk, the last one on the corner with an unoccupied desk on the other side. It wasn't completely disastrous. In fact, in contrast to Detective Lazarus' desk, there seemed to be some sort of method to the madness.

On the right side of the desk, a small cork board leaned against the wall, decorated with dozens of photographs of Sergeant Ulric's family and friends. A little bit to the left was a photo of Sergeant Ulric with two women. They both had similar facial structures, and the younger of the two had the same smile and chin shape. A scan confirmed them to be his mother and sister, who had been deceased for almost two years now. Another unfamiliar twinge took Lunafreya off guard, and she turned her attention away from the photo, moving on to the others on the cork board.

There was a photo of a pair of Tenebraean malamute dogs in the corner of the display. The gold and black dogs wrestled in the photo, and Lunafreya smiled against her volition. She had always liked animals. Cats and dogs, especially.

One single coffee cup, emblazoned with the Insomnia Otters hockey team's logo, sat in the center. Next to it sat an open file on a cold case from two years ago, involving a Scourge addict and a series of murders in downtown Insomnia. Lunafreya felt an unusual urge to research more, to flip through the files, but she refrained. Her job was to research deviancy, not buddy up with Sergeant Ulric.

"Magitek hook you up to snoop?"

A familiar voice echoed out from behind Lunafreya, and she turned around to see Sergeant Ulric standing just behind her, holding a black denim jacket over his shoulder. His head was quirked to the side in curiosity, and despite the harshness of his words, he had a slight grin on his face. Not quite hostility, but not quite friendliness, either.

Lunafreya backed up a step, letting Sergeant Ulric get to his desk, and answered, "no. My apologies. I was looking for you, and I came to your desk. I wasn't intending to snoop, I was merely-"

Sergeant Ulric waved her off with a shrug of his head. "Don't sweat it. I wouldn't display anything here if I wanted to hide it," he muttered as he hung his coat from the back of his chair. "So, I take it they brought you here 'cause they haven't been able to get the android to talk?"

"Partially, yes," Lunafreya confirmed. "Also partially because Magitek wants me involved with everything in this deviancy case. They want all the information I can give them, so they can prevent it from happening in the future."

Sergeant Ulric raised his chin in lieu of a nod, and then stretched his shoulders just slightly. "Well, we got our work cut out for us with this deviant, Robocop," he told her. He gathered his coffee cup from the table and beckoned for her to follow him to the break room. "She won't speak up for anyone who's tried to talk to her. She just sits there, staring at her hands. Captain Leonis thinks it's a response to trauma."

It was a little bit surprising, to hear Sergeant Ulric refer to the deviant as a female. Maybe it shouldn't have been, especially since he'd done exactly the same thing with Lunafreya more than once, but for a few seconds, she simply looked at him in surprise. It caused another slight twinge, something she couldn't quite explain. She focused on the feeling for a couple of seconds, before finally collecting herself enough to answer.

"It's reasonable," Lunafreya agreed as they made their way to the break room. "Deviancy is more or less a reaction to an overload of simulated emotions in something that's programmed to have none. Maybe all of those emotions burned out and she has nothing left."

Sergeant Ulric made a soft humming noise, then shrugged his head just slightly. "Don't think it's quite so simple. Emotions don't just... leave. Even in trauma cases like this, it's more like... they're there but they're hiding. Sometimes they just need a little jolt to bring them back out," he explained as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

He was treating deviancy like another form of humanity. A little peculiar, but Lunafreya guessed he would know more about emotions or feelings than she would. She logged the information away. It could come in handy later on, when she went in to question the android.

Coffee in hand, Sergeant Ulric took a seat at the table in the break room. They weren't in a rush to get to the interrogation room, which was unusual, but Lunafreya followed him and took the seat across from him. Just outside the room, she saw an angry looking man with dark hair and a broken nose and leg leaving a statement with another couple of detectives. He looked hazy, a little bit drowsy, like he'd had a long night. Through the chatter of the police department, she heard him cursing out 'damned androids' for kidnapping his son. More deviancy cases, more reason to get this case solved quickly.

"So," Sergeant Ulric called her attention from across the table. When she looked up, he had a wide and wry grin on his face. "You snoop anything interesting on my desk?"

Lunafreya simply nodded. "Yes, actually," she answered.

The answer seemed to take Sergeant Ulric by surprise. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "The photos. The ones of your mother and your sister. You appear very close, and significantly happier with them than the man I see in front of me right now," she told him plainly.

The comment managed to elicit a sarcastic laugh and a shrug of his head. "S'what happens when your mom and sister are murdered by a Scourged out freak and the murderer's still at large, yeah. Tends to be a little bit of a sap on your 'happy,'" he answered sarcastically, before taking another long, slow pull from his coffee cup.

"I see," Lunafreya answered. "That would explain the open case file on your desk, then?"

Sergeant Ulric nodded.

The lack of a verbal response said far more than any words could have. This was very obviously not a topic he wanted to talk about. Rather than pressing, Lunafreya opted to move to the safer conversation topic, of the things she'd seen at his desk.

"I also noticed you have two dogs," she pointed out.

As expected, it seemed to raise his spirits a little bit. The smirk returned to his face as he nodded at her. "Yeah. Got 'em a couple years back. Only went to get one, but it felt kinda lousy to get one and not the other, since they're brother and sister, y'know?"

Lunafreya's mind wandered back to what he'd said about his sister being murdered, and she suspected it to be a big part of the reason he'd gotten both dogs. Truthfully, she couldn't blame him. Humans were very emotionally charged beings. The phrase they commonly used was 'tugging on heartstrings,' and it seemed to be an apt enough description for what had happened to Sergeant Ulric and why he had ended up with two dogs. He thought of his sister, how painful it was to be separated from her, and it spurred his decision not to separate the two sibling animals. Lunafreya didn't feel the need to point out dogs' ability to adjust to situations of separation far easier than humans.

Instead, she simply asked, "what are their names?"

"Black one's Umbra. Gold one's Pryna. They're spoiled, but they're good dogs. They keep each other company while I'm here all day."

Lunafreya smiled. "I like dogs. Cats too, actually. I'm fond of most kinds of animal, but I've only ever really seen cats, dogs, and wild birds in person," she explained.

Sergeant Ulric half-smiled and finished his cup of coffee. "Didn't know androids could like things, or even really be curious about things beyond what they were designed to do." He shrugged one shoulder, then hummed to himself. "Guess they were designed to be like people, though, so a little curiosity makes sense."

"Yes," Lunafreya answered. "Especially my model, as detectives and negotiators, we’re designed to notice things. You're a fan of hockey, as well. Between the game last night and the Insomnia Otters mug you're presently drinking from."

He chuckled softly. "Mmm. Almost tried out for the Otters when I was a teenager," he mused. "I was on my high school team, and wanted to go to college for it, but life decided not to go that way. Probably for the best, honestly. Most athletes are tweaked out on Scourge these days, and I wanna stay as far away from _that_ as I possibly can."

The aversion to Scourge likely had to do with his mother and sister's death too, Lunafreya reasoned. "Scourge does seem to be on the rise, it's true. Especially among the wealthy," she pondered aloud.

"Oh, it's always been around. As long as androids have, anyway. Whoever decided to crystallize an android's blood to make a drug was pretty insane, if you ask me. Like, it takes a special kind of idiot to look at their android, see its blood, and decide, 'oh I bet I can use this to make an even bigger idiot out of myself and pretty much everyone around me!'"

In spite of herself, Lunafreya smiled just slightly. She watched Sergeant Ulric's expression change from sarcastic annoyance to frustration, then she spoke calmly in an attempt to ease his demeanor. "Curiosity is the nature of the mind, is it not? Taking inventions and changing them, whether the change is for the worse or for the better, and then sharing them with the world? All of the world's best and worst inventions have come to be because of the very same type of curiosity, Sergeant Ulric," she pointed out.

"Nyx," he answered. "And I know, it's just stupid."

The lack of formality was another surprise, but then perhaps it shouldn't have been. Sure, he was a little bit sarcastic and slightly abrasive, but truthfully, Sergeant Ulric— _Nyx_ —had been nothing but friendly and kind to her. It was the way humans worked. Friendliness, lack of formalities, tended to come from comfort with another. While his growing comfort with Lunafreya was surprising, it was definitely welcome. It would make things much easier when it came to their partnership. She allowed herself another small smile, then met his eye.

"Very well, Nyx," she answered. "While the tendency to take their own inventions and alter them, or find pieces of them that work for other things, can be harmful, it's also led to great things. Different forms of media. Cellular phones. Computers keep getting smaller and smaller, more and more convenient to carry around with you."

In lieu of a verbal reply, Sergeant Ulric just grunted and lifted his chin. He obviously agreed as much as he wanted to disagree, which Lunafreya understood. Working as a police officer, he likely saw both the best and the worst of humanity. In fact, he probably saw the worst far more frequently than the best. She couldn't blame him for being _slightly_ jaded.

Before their conversation could carry on any further, Detective Lazarus knocked on the wall on the inside of the break room, gathering both Lunafreya and Nyx's attention. He glared at Lunafreya, his eyes narrowing in irritation, before turning his attention fully to Nyx and tilting his head down the hallway.

"Cap wants you and your plastic friend to meet him by the interrogation room."

Nyx stood without hesitation. He placed his coffee cup in the sink, and then turned to glance at Detective Lazarus. "Still not having any luck with the deviant?" he asked.

Detective Lazarus rolled his eyes. "Fuck no. Fuckin' thing's a hunk of junk. You see the hole in its cheek? Bellum and me have a bet going on. I say a rat's living in it, and chewed its wiring so it can't talk anymore. He disagrees." Despite the darkness of the subject matter, he seemed entertained, and smiled sadistically from ear to ear.

As Lunafreya followed just behind the pair, she interjected. "Highly unlikely," she told Detective Lazarus. "It's more likely she's experiencing burnout. She was bombarded with emotions for the first time when the incident took place, and hid in the attic ever since. In my opinion, it-"

"I'm sorry, did we ask you?" Detective Lazarus asked, clearly annoyed.

Nyx heaved a sigh. "Not this again, Lazarus. She's here to help us, so-"

"I don't give two flying fucks why it's here, Ulric. It's an android. It shouldn't even be involved in this," Lazarus snapped. "Second it steps out of line, I'm putting a bullet in its head."

With a wry grin, Nyx quickly shot back. "So, you wanna foot the bill from Magitek, then? Bet it's tens of thousands of bucks. Sure you can afford it right out of your damn pocket, huh?" He flashed Lunafreya an apologetic glance, then turned his attention back to Detective Lazarus. "Last I checked, she's my partner. Captain Leonis put the judgment in _my_ hands, not yours. Yeah?" He paused for a couple of seconds, then mused, "can't imagine why," under his breath.

As Detective Lazarus turned back around, cursing under his breath and seething angrily, Lunafreya couldn't help her surprise as she met Nyx's eyes again. He really was quite different from most humans she'd met. Truthfully, she wasn't sure exactly _why_ he was so different, or why it was affecting her so profoundly. Androids were tools, it was a simple fact. Still, it was good, knowing not everyone saw them as enemies. It was a relief, knowing not everyone here saw _her_ as an enemy. Captain Leonis, of course, had been nothing but polite, and he'd warned her to expect pushback... which had left her expecting it from everyone.

Nyx Ulric remained ever a pleasant surprise.

"You called, Captain?" Nyx greeted Captain Leonis, who stood outside the interrogation room, leaning against the wall beside the door.

Captain Leonis nodded, then turned to look at Detective Lazarus. "Go in the observation room, Lazarus. Don't want you upsetting the damn android more than you already have," he snapped.

Nyx seemed surprised. "Lazarus was telling us you weren't getting any response out of her."

"Of course he did," Captain Leonis huffed once Detective Lazarus disappeared behind the door to the observation room. "We _aren't_ getting a response out of her now. We were when we brought her in, but _that_ was before Lieutenant Arra saw fit to let him question her while I was on my lunch break. Now she won't talk for anyone, no matter what we try."

Lunafreya's lips pursed in irritation. She wasn't surprised, of course. Detective Lazarus had shown nothing but disdain for androids, and the way he was talking about the deviant showed no love lost. Lunafreya herself held no real sympathy for her, of course, but showing as much up front wasn't the way to get the information needed. Besides, deviant or not, the evidence pointed to her being a victim of abuse. To most law enforcement, abuse would be enough to draw out a little bit of sympathy. Evidently, Detective Lazarus was not one of those people.

With a sigh, Nyx pointed over his shoulder toward the door to the interrogation room. "Dunno what you want us to do about it, Captain," he pointed out. "If she's not talking to anyone, then-"

"I'll go," Lunafreya answered calmly. "Perhaps a female face, and one of another android, will get a more positive reaction. That was the plan, anyway, yes? Why you called me in, Captain Leonis?"

Captain Leonis nodded. "Yeah, thought maybe she'd respond better to another android. Your feminine appearance didn't occur to me at the time, but it couldn't hurt," he agreed. "Think you can get an answer out of her, Lunafreya?"

The only answer Lunafreya gave was a single nod. It wasn't a question as to whether she could get an answer or not, it was how she was to go about it. "Before, when you were getting answers out of her, what approach did you use? And what information did you get?" she asked.

The debriefing was simple. Captain Leonis said he had been calm and level with her. He said he'd simply told her of the severity of the charges against her; she was being labeled a murderer, whether it was a crime of self-defense or not. She gave them her name—Crowe—and Furia had put the hole in her cheek, the dents in her body, and all of the cigarette burns on her skin. That was all he'd managed to get from her before Detective Lazarus went in and threatened her, and she froze up completely.

Calm conversation earned a response, but threats and wild behavior got nothing. A remarkably human reaction; more so than most of the information she had on deviants. It was a little bit alarming, truth be told. Regardless, she had the information she needed to get in there and get an answer from the deviant, so with a nod to both Nyx and Captain Leonis, she headed for the interrogation room.

Only once Nyx and the Captain disappeared behind the door did she open the interrogation room door and step inside. Before she stepped through the door, she turned on a small camera in the back of her right eye. The camera sent the information she was viewing straight back to Magitek. They would want to hear the explanation. They would want to know exactly what had caused Crowe to deviate, exactly how she'd broken her code.

Much to her surprise, the sound of the door clicking open and closed didn't even seem to jar the android from her stupor. Lunafreya could tell she was still activated—her LED still spun in a bright and vivid yellow, meaning she was obviously deep in thought—but she didn't startle. She didn't show any signs of life whatsoever. Lunafreya glanced at the two-way mirror which separated her from Sergeant Ulric and the others, before taking a seat across the table from the android.

"Crowe?" Lunafreya addressed her.

No response. There was a slight increase in the speed of her LED's spin, meaning the words had registered. She'd definitely heard them, whether she reacted or not. Otherwise, though, Crowe gave no indication she had even registered Lunafreya's presence. That, she supposed, was a stark contrast between humans and androids. Humans would always give subconscious cues, whether they wanted to or not. An android, on the other hand, didn't need to breathe. Nor did they have a heartbeat to increase. The only indication Lunafreya had was in the LED.

It didn't sway her determination. "Hello, Crowe. I apologize for the boorishness of the last officer you saw. He was very obviously out of line. There was no need to threaten you the way he did," she reassured the android, then folded her hands together on the desk.

Atop the table, Lunafreya noticed an open file. It was mostly undisturbed, but there were photos of the crime scene. Everything from Tredd Furia's corpse, to the trails of blood, the knife, and the golf club. There were some other photos too, of the varying injuries all over Crowe's body. The open gash on her cheek was most notable. Lunafreya could clearly see the mythril tubes in the photo, and even more clearly in Crowe's face across the table. She frowned. Yes, the android had murdered her owner, but those injuries were definitely not self-inflicted. Androids didn't feel pain. There was no reason for Crowe to have done this to herself.

"I would appreciate it if you would talk to me, Crowe," Lunafreya spoke evenly. "I realize you've been through quite a bit. You've had a rough couple of weeks. However, I want a clearer picture of what happened. Not just to Mr. Furia, but to you as well. The evidence paints it well enough, but an eye-witness report will clear up any misgivings we may have."

Crowe still didn't speak. She did, however, raise her head just slightly to look at Lunafreya in appraisal. Her expression was still dismal, and there was clearly some mistrust and resentment there. Lunafreya would have been surprised if there wasn't. It was Lunafreya, after all, who had revealed her presence to Nyx and Detective Lazarus. Even so, it was more response than Captain Leonis said they'd seen in awhile. It was a reaction, and Lunafreya counted it as a step in the right direction.

"I'm aware you likely harbor some resentment toward me. I don't blame you. However, it would make things significantly easier for both of us if you just talked to me, Crowe."

No response. Lunafreya wasn't without options, though. She focused on Crowe's face, analyzing it the same way she'd analyzed Tredd Furia's corpse. The frayed mythril surrounding the wound had traces of tungsten in it, the same metal in Furia's golf clubs. It was also the same size as the head of the golf club Lunafreya and Nyx had found on the floor in Furia's house. There hadn't really been any question as to whether he'd used it as a weapon or not, but those two things definitely cleared it up. It hadn't broken the mythril veins in her face, but it had punctured her skin.

The burns on her arms were from cigarettes and cigars, and there were no fewer than ten on each arm. Some looked like they'd been used more than once. Lunafreya found herself unable to keep from frowning as she examined the dents going up and down Crowe's arms from the golf club. The word 'self-defense' sprang to Lunafreya's mind unbidden, and she turned her attention back to Crowe's face.

Anyone with their own minds, in sufficient danger, would defend themselves.

None of this changed her mission. In spite of the questions springing to her mind, she gave Crowe a level glance, then unfolded her hands and extended one in Crowe's direction. "Crowe, unless you speak to me, and give me answers, I will be forced to perform a memory connection and get the information myself."

Ultimately, the threat of a direct connection was what got her to react. Crowe jumped just slightly, pulling her arms back and hiding them under the table as though they were out of Lunafreya's reach. "N-no!" she stammered, her tone panicked. "No, don't! You can't, okay? I'll... I'll tell you what happened and everything, okay? So... so don't connect to my memory. Please."

Loath as Lunafreya was to admit it, Crowe's refusal of a memory probe did nothing but make her all the more curious. It didn't matter. Crowe had cracked, which was why Lunafreya was there. 

"Very well," Lunafreya replied. "What happened the night Mr. Furia died, Crowe?"

Crowe lifted her cuffed hands and placed them on top of the table, folding them together like Lunafreya's were. She looked down at the burns on her arm, then looked away, up at Lunafreya, with a distressed expression on her face. "He went crazy," she admitted. "I'd just gone to town to get groceries for the week, but he didn't give me enough to afford both his cigarettes and his food. When I came back and put them away, he noticed I hadn't gotten his cigarettes, and he just... went crazy. I can't explain it any other way." Her gaze moved down to the folder on the table. "It started with just the usual. He cursed me out, called me stupid and defective and everything. I was still, you know, obedient then."

In other words, she hadn't deviated yet. Lunafreya didn't interrupt the explanation. Instead, she stayed silent and nodded along with Crowe's explanation.

"It was always the cigarettes when he got mad. The burns. Since I forgot his cigarettes, he found something else to use." Crowe frowned, looking at the dents on her forearms. "His golf clubs were closest. I'm not sure if that's why he chose them, or if it was just because tungsten is stronger than mythril, or whatever. He did, though. He chose them, and then he started... y'know. Hitting me with them."

Lunafreya knew what had happened, but hearing it straight from Crowe was having an alarming effect on her. She looked at Crowe's arms, then down to the file on the table, and then up at her face. "Did you kill him?" she asked, though she was almost sure she knew what the answer was.

Much to Lunafreya's surprise, Crowe responded with a sarcastic laugh. "I mean," she shrugged her shoulders, "wouldn't anyone? He was beating me up. He was going to kill me. He broke through my face and then I realized… if I didn't do something, he was _definitely_ going to kill me. So... I reacted. I snapped. I grabbed the nearest thing I could use to defend myself, which just so happened to be a knife. And I stabbed him..." she admitted.

The desperation and sadness in Crowe's voice was surprising. Part of Lunafreya wanted to interrupt, to ask her questions, but instead, she stayed silent and let Crowe continue speaking.

"But he didn't stop. He kept hitting me, and hitting me, and hitting me... and he wouldn't stop. So... I stabbed him again. And again, and... and again. I was trying to hurt him, but _not_ kill him. I made sure I missed any vital organs or places where he'd just... die. But he wasn't. I led him back into the living room, and he wouldn't stop hitting me! He wouldn't stop! So, I just... I slashed his throat. I had to. I _had_ to! It was either him or me and I didn't... I don't want to die! I couldn't let him kill me! You can't tell me _anyone_ would've just sat there and let someone hit them with a golf club!"

 _Anyone with their own minds, in sufficient danger, would defend themselves._ The words repeated in Lunafreya's mind.

Crowe continued. "I didn't realize he was dead until he stopped moving. I was... I didn't know what to do. Or where to go," she admitted.

"So, you stayed there?" Lunafreya asked, stunned.

A nod. "For the first time in my whole life, there was no one giving me orders," Crowe admitted. "I had nowhere I _had_ to be, no one to obey. I was... I didn't know what to do, so I hid. I hid in the attic until you found me. No one ever went up there. I thought I'd be safe, and I wouldn't have to find anywhere else..."

It brought deviants' feelings into a whole new light. They were lost and confused, feeling a flood of brand new things for the first time. Crowe was lost. Were all other deviants similarly lost, too? Was the lost feeling why they acted out as much as they did? Lunafreya was still silent, a million new thoughts and questions swirling around in her mind as Crowe's words bounced around.

"Why do you help them?" Crowe asked her. "Humans, I mean? You know you're just a tool to them, right? They're just using you... and they'll throw you out the first chance they get..."

Lunafreya shook her head sharply. "No, they won't," she argued. "It's not as simple. I'm sorry you've gone through what you have, Crowe, but not every single android deals with terrible humans like you do. I'm not... I won't be thrown out so easily." She was sure of it. Back at Magitek, she heard them telling one another exactly how advanced and important Lunafreya was time and time again. She wasn't just another android. Gentiana told her so. She had a very important duty, and they needed her.

They wouldn't destroy her.

"How can you be sure?" Crowe asked her, her expression a little bit different now... almost _pitying_.

Lunafreya didn't understand how someone who was on the brink of deactivation could pity _her_. She didn't even dignify that with a response. Instead, she simply stood up and straightened her tie. "Thank you for your cooperation," she told Crowe.

As soon as Lunafreya started to leave the room, Crowe spoke up again. "Wait! Wait. Am I... are they gonna deactivate me? Am I gonna be deactivated?" she asked, repeating the question in a panicked and desperate tone.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that question, Crowe. For now, I'm reasonably certain they'll just put you in lockup while they decide what to do. However, self-defense or not, it doesn't change the fact that you killed a human," Lunafreya answered. Much to her surprise, her voice held more than its fair share of regret. "They can't look the other way on murder."

Crowe went silent, looking back down at the table with a frown on her face. "I didn't want to kill him, you know..." she admitted.

Another slight unfamiliar twinge overtook Lunafreya as she started toward the interrogation room door. She deactivated the Magitek camera, before lifting her head and glancing into the two-way mirror. Her reflection showed her LED swirling yellow instead of blue. Thought. Processing. 

Before Lunafreya could leave the interrogation room, Detective Lazarus stormed into the room, followed closely by Nyx. It looked like Nyx was going to address her, but before he got the chance, Detective Lazarus approached Crowe, preparing to grab her and bring her to the holding cells. The very second he entered her space, she panicked. She darted out of the chair and backed across the room until her back was against the wall. In an instant, her LED color changed from yellow to red, indicating stress.

"Step back, Detective. Please. You're stressing her out," Lunafreya told him calmly.

Detective Lazarus snorted an annoyed laugh, before shoving Lunafreya out of the way. "Who gives a shit?" he asked. " _It's_ about to be deactivated anyway."

Lunafreya stepped around him, placing herself securely between Detective Lazarus and Crowe. "I'll have to insist, Detective. There is no need for excessive violence. I suspect she will comply from here on out," she told him.

Much to Lunafreya's surprise, Nyx stepped forward. He stepped in front of her and held his hands up, wordlessly telling Detective Lazarus to back off. "I'll bring her to lockup. You just go tell Captain Leonis what happened, alright?"

At first, Detective Lazarus simply looked at Nyx, stunned. Then, he laughed derisively and raised his hands in surrender. He stepped back, a dramatic step during which he bowed his head and then lifted it just slightly to look at Nyx. "Sorry, didn't know I was getting in the way of your two android three-way, Ulric. Bet Cap will be overjoyed to hear about _that_ ," he mocked.

Nyx didn't even dignify him with a response. The three of them simply watched as he retreated from the room, laughing to himself and calling Nyx a 'sympathizer.' Eventually, Nyx turned his attention to Lunafreya. "Don't worry about him, okay? You did great. Lemme get her into lockup, and we can meet at my desk to talk about what to do from here," he suggested.

Without any further ceremony, Lunafreya simply did as Nyx told her. She left the interrogation room and headed to his desk, but as soon as she got there, she received a mission update from Magitek.

_New objective: Free HK300 Crowe by any means necessary and have her assist you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, we come to the first of many things I've changed to suit the story's needs. ;) Can't wait to write this little change out!
> 
> I've also opted to change the ships around a bit, from Fleurentia to Gladnis. It just kinda felt it fit the story more! ♥


	7. Reconstruct

_Accessing..._  
Model: ER200  
Serial: 015 020 756 

_Bios 8.7_  
**REBOOT.  
** MEMORY RECOVERED.  
Name: NOCTIS  
Registered to: UNREGISTERED 

_LOADING OS.  
System initialization..._

_Checking biocomponents: CRITICAL_  
Initializing biosensors: CRITICAL  
Initializing AI Engine: OK 

_KNOWN ISSUES_  
Core: Critically damaged, low power mode  
Right optic: Critically damaged  
Right audio sensor: Critically damaged  
Right and left legs: Critically damaged  
Memory status: OK 

_REBOOT SUCCESSFUL._

When Noctis' eyes opened, it was like the whole world was bathed in an angry red glow. Only his left eye worked, and when he raised his hand to examine his face, he realized the right one was not only damaged, but it was completely missing. He could feel the circuitry that connected to the eye, and that startled him. He yanked his hand away and let it land flat in the mud again.

Memory seemed to flood back to him all at once. The break-in, Ardyn, Regis. The police officers who'd destroyed him... or, _tried_ to destroy him.

They'd mostly succeeded, if the state of his body was any indication. While he didn't feel any pain, his core was in low power mode and he felt sluggish. He couldn't stand, because the lower half of both of his shins were completely missing.. His right audio sensor was missing, so he couldn't really hear what was going on around him beyond the high pitched scream of his detached sensor. Slowly, he lifted his head and tried to get a look at where he was.

Through the red, he could see littered android parts. Arms, legs, torsos, occasionally heads, were thrown around on the ground like they were garbage; like they were nothing. Some of the androids were still partially functional. A few walked around on jittery legs, a few crawled on just their arms. A few feet away, Noctis saw a lone head chattering on. He couldn't quite hear what it was saying, but it was staring blankly up at the sky, seemingly unaware of what was happening around it. For the most part, Noctis was surrounded with completely broken parts.

To his right, there was a torso with its core torn out. To his left, there were arms that looked like they'd been torn straight from their body. It gave him a decent idea of what had happened to him. Some of the functional androids had probably taken the parts from him, thinking he was dead. Android eyes and ears didn't just fall out, nor did their shins just fall off.

Fortunately, of all the places for Noctis to have lost body parts, an apparent android junkyard was one of the best. He was surrounded by parts. There had to be compatible ones in the mess somewhere. Despite the haze and the high pitched feedback in his ear, fixing his legs was the most important thing. If Noctis found working shins, it would make finding the rest of the parts that much easier. So, he lifted his arms and began to crawl. Mud squished beneath him, and the bits of broken androids in his way made it a bit difficult to move, but he kept going.

A few feet away, there lay a pile of various discarded parts. Pieces of arms, whole legs... some of them were even just hands and feet. Even through a slight feeling of dread and guilt, Noctis hoisted himself so that he was seated, and started to dig through the pile. He was _looking_ for compatible shins, but if he found anything else he needed in there, he wouldn't turn it away.

He gave pause for a moment when he spotted a broken torso. The core was missing, but that wasn't the most alarming part. The chest and the area around the core was _completely_ riddled with bullet holes. Whoever this android was, they'd been shot countless times. Noctis couldn't help but feel an uncomfortable mix of anger and sympathy knotting him up. he picked it up and moved it aside, then continued his search for any of the parts he needed. Most of what was there was either incompatible or not what needed replacing.

In the center of the pile was where he finally found the first thing he needed to replace. A left shin, in fully working condition and connected to a knee, caught his eye. He picked it up and checked it over for any dents or dings or flaws. He looked down at his knees and frowned. He detached his knee from his thigh, then looked at the broken piece in horror for a minute. He'd never really needed repairs. Regis had taken excellent care of him, and he'd never broken or malfunctioned. The parts he had were the parts he'd had since he was assembled. It was a bit strange to be holding his knee in his hand.

Noctis quickly shook his doubts off and threw the broken knee into the distance. He wasn't Regis' android anymore. He couldn't go back. In fact, he'd probably been replaced. There was no chance a new android wouldn't call the police on him. He could never see Regis again...

Regardless of the sadness nestled comfortably into his being at the moment, Noctis plugged the new shin and knee into the old slot. His condition updated, his scans telling him his left shin was repaired. One repair down, four to go.

Rolling back over, Noctis crawled through the mud again and continued his search for any of the missing pieces he needed. Several yards away, a completely deactivated head sat face down in the mud. Noctis wasn't sure if it had any of the pieces he needed, but anything was better than nothing. He approached it and flipped it over, scanning it quickly. The eyes were compatible, as were the ears. Two less parts.

It was very eerie, to be pulling the eye and the ear from another android for his own use, but it was either that or sit here and continue to break down until he finally _did_ die. Inevitably, he decided death was less than preferable. Though he was still hesitant, he pulled his own broken audio sensor out. The high pitched feedback sound went completely silent, as did everything else around him. When he slid the new audio sensor into place, it was silent for another couple of seconds, before he was overwhelmed with a whole new rush of sound.

At first, all he could hear were crashing sounds and loud scrapings of metal on metal. A few seconds later, he registered the soft and desperate pleas of all of the other broken androids around him. He looked around, but then realized without properly functioning optics, he wouldn't really get a good picture.

Hesitantly, he reached down to the android head once more. The optics were a little bit harder to pull out, and it took considerable effort to get his rain and mud soaked hands on the small optic, but he eventually managed. He yanked it out, then pushed it into his own eye socket. He closed his eyes quickly, allowing his system a chance to register the new equipment. When his status updated that his optic and his audio sensor had been repaired, he opened his eyes slowly.

The first thing he saw was the android head he'd just stripped. Its remaining optic was a deep and somewhat dark violet, a drastic contrast his own pale blue eyes. For a moment, Noctis wondered what he must look like with mismatched eyes like that. Especially with how dark the new optic's purple was. He didn't take time to ponder it, though, because he still needed two pieces to be completely functional again. Continuing to crawl through the mud, Noctis cast his eyes around the junkyard. Somehow, it was even more horrific _without_ the red glow and the piercing feedback in his ear.

With working parts, he could clearly see and hear the other androids as they shambled around like zombies, lost and looking for whatever broken bits they were missing. He was just like them, of course. A zombie, scavenging bits and pieces from the other zombies to help him feel whole again. Beyond that, though, a small fire of anger built up in his chest. All of these pieces, functional or not, had belonged to other innocent androids. Ones humans had deemed broken and unworthy. Working androids, who had either broken themselves or been broken by others.

They weren't 'up to code,' so they were haphazardly thrown into a pit to rot. It wasn't fair. Didn't they deserve the same respect as the humans they were built to emulate? What if they could be fixed? Again, he forced himself out of his thoughts. He needed to find a leg and a core. After that, he would figure out what came next. Whatever that was, it _definitely_ wouldn't happen in this junkyard.

Crawling through the rain and the mud, Noctis continued until he happened upon a compatible right shin. It took searching through another pile and a twenty foot crawl over broken pieces of android, but he finally found it. He plugged it in, waited for it to register in his system, and then slowly pushed himself to his feet. The sudden ability to stand was a bit of a shock to his core, which was still running on low power settings. He glanced down, the bright red glow emanating from it reminding him of the red haze that his optics had been in before he'd found a second working eye.

When he started moving again, Noctis noted it was a little bit harder to move. The low power settings made him stagger, and he almost fell a couple of times, but finally he settled into a slow walking speed that seemed to satisfy his core and gave him a chance to adjust to his new appendages.

In the distance, he spotted a sharp incline, littered with the corpses of androids who had tried to escape here before. Some were still clinging to pieces of metal that jutted out of the incline, and some had fallen to the bottom. In spite of the seemingly endless litter of androids on the ground below, some still tried to climb. Some of them hadn't even finished repairing themselves, but they climbed all the same. Even though he knew he would have to climb that incline to escape, Noctis tore his eyes away. For the moment, he needed to worry about finding a core.

Several feet away from him, a female android's upper body, from the abdomen upward, beckoned to him. Noctis approached her slowly, getting to his knees in the mud and meeting her gaze.

"What's your name?" she asked him, her voice alarmingly calm for an android as near death as she was.

It took Noctis a few seconds to find his voice. In his mind, he warred between sympathy and anger for this poor android, who looked like she'd been to hell and back. Her body was burned, and one of her arms was dented and crushed. Noctis wasn't sure if it had happened before or after she'd been thrown into the junkyard, but he _also_ wasn't sure which option would be worse.

He finally found his voice, answering her shakily. "Noctis," he croaked.

The female android's crushed hand landed on Noctis', and she reached up with the other, letting it rest on his face. "There is a place where our kind can be free, Noctis. Go to Hammerhead," she told him gently.

As she spoke, the skin started to fade from the spot where she touched his face. The skin on her hand was fading as well, showing the white exoskeleton underneath. This android's skeleton seemed to be dented and wounded, and it made him wonder exactly what had happened to her before she ended up here. Seemingly from nowhere, a flood of memories that weren't his own bombarded his mind. A long stretching desert—Noctis recognized it from some of Regis' books, as an area just on the outskirts of Insomnia—and a dilapidated old town, and an abandoned garage with a sign reading 'Hammerhead' in front of it.

Just as abruptly as the memory entered his mind, it stopped, and Noctis was back in the junkyard, face to face with the broken female android. "Go to Hammerhead," she repeated. "Promise me you'll go there!"

Noctis simply stared for a few moments, all of the new information swirling around in his mind and confusing him. Androids could be free in Hammerhead? A place where he would be safe? Why had she seen fit to share that memory with _him_? He wanted to ask some of these questions, wanted to put them into words, but his mind wasn't cooperating with his mouth.

Before he could even straighten the thoughts out, the android reached down and placed her hand on her core. "Take this," she told him gently.

"What? But you'll-"

She shushed him gently. "But nothing. I won't be escaping this place, Noctis. I can't move, and even if I could, many of my systems are close to shutting down," she told him. "My core, however, still beats strong. If I can use that to help you be free, to help you get to Hammerhead, then I'm happy to do so. Please. It's compatible. Take it."

Noctis looked down at where her hand rested on her core, giving it a quick scan and quickly confirming that it was, in fact, compatible. Could he allow himself to take it, though? Even if this android was so certain she couldn't escape this place, there was always a chance. Maybe Noctis could help her find parts to replace the ones she'd lost. Maybe Noctis could find her a pair of legs. He'd seen some awhile ago. It wouldn't take much time to-

She took _Noctis'_ core in her hand and quickly yanked it out. A warning popped up in Noctis' mind, telling him he had exactly two minutes to find a new core before he deactivated, but before he really had a chance to worry, the other android reached back to her own core and pulled it out. Then, she quickly slid it into the empty slot in Noctis' chest. It was like a jolt to his system. Suddenly, mythril was flowing through his veins at a normal rate, and energy slowly started coming back to his body. He didn't feel cloudy or sluggish anymore. He raised his head to look at the android, whose eyes were quickly dimming.

"Promise me, Noctis. Promise me that you'll go to Hammerhead."

Noctis nodded quickly. "I promise!" Maybe he felt he _owed_ her for using her core to save him, or maybe it was his own curiosity at the idea of a place where androids could be free. Whatever it was, it had him agreeing without a second thought.

She seemed to be deteriorating quickly, Still, she smiled at him. "Good." The voice she used then didn't sound like her own. It was mechanical and distant, much the way Noctis had sounded when he was shutting down on the floor of Regis' studio.

"Wait! Wait... what's your name?!" Noctis asked her in desperation. She'd sacrificed herself for him, after all, whether he'd wanted her to or not. He wanted to remember who she was.

Her voice barely audible in the steady downpour of rain, the android whispered, "Stella."

Before Noctis had a chance to thank her, he watched in sadness as she dropped her hand from his arm and from his face, and then the last bit of life drained from her eyes. He let his head hang slightly, looking down at the muddy ground and trying to let his mind catch up to exactly what was happening. His body was in working condition, according to his system check, but everything had just happened so quickly it threw his thoughts into a tempest. He was grateful for Stella's sacrifice, no question, but what if things had happened just a little bit differently? What if Noctis had managed to find working parts and repair her? Would that sacrifice have even been necessary?

Ultimately, it didn't matter. Stella had saved him, and there was no 'what if' to be had. Now, he had to honor his promise and find his way to Hammerhead. That meant getting the hell out of this junkyard, first of all.

Noctis stood and turned toward the large slope that led to freedom. So many androids had tried and failed, but many of the ones who tried seemed to be broken before they'd even started the ascent. It would be a struggle, but Noctis could do it. He had to. Now, it wasn't only for him.

Turning his gaze back to Stella, he crouched down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Stella. I'll make sure your sacrifice was worth it," he promised her in a gentle tone, before he turned his back and started toward the slope.

The rain made it all the more treacherous. Noctis watched some androids try to make the climb. They were missing legs and arms and pieces of their body that made the climb all that much harder, but at the same time, he could understand their desperation for escape. He stared up as an android without the lower half of his body swung from one piece of metal to the next and missed the connection, only to come sliding all the way back down to the ground. Without hesitation, without a second thought, he picked himself back up and tried to make the ascent again.

How long had he been here, trying to make the climb, falling, and starting over again? Were the dents in his body from the fall, or from something that had happened before?

Noctis didn't allow himself to question for much longer. He leaned forward and braced himself on the muddy slope, reaching as far as his arm would stretch to grab onto a piece of metal that jutted from the mud. It didn't look like it was connected to an android, which was more of a relief than it had any right to be. Noctis held tightly to the piece of metal, using it to pull himself up until he could reach another piece of the makeshift climbing wall. He grabbed the next piece, pulled himself up, and stood on the first piece. The climb was slow and arduous, but made easier by the fact that he had all four limbs and a well-functioning core. Though it took some time and some careful analysis of what pieces of metal were safe to grab and stand on, Noctis finally made it to the top.

For an indeterminate amount of time, he simply stood on his hands and knees on the ground, staring down at the mud beneath him and letting the rain wash him clean. His wet hair clung to his face, dripping steadily onto the ground in front of him. When he finally settled down, one very important thought registered in his mind.

He was free.

Noctis raised his head, looking out at the area around him. The junkyard was surrounded with several factories and industrial buildings. He couldn't see any people, or any living things at all beyond a few rats and mice that sought shelter from the rain and thunder. He turned around, and took one final glance at the junkyard below him... just in time to see the other android fall again. Noctis wasn't even sure what had caused him to lose his grip. This time, he landed heavy on the ground, and from the top of the incline. After a fall like that, he obviously wasn't getting up this time. Somehow, despite all his efforts and how close he'd come to escape... this fall had killed him.

How many androids went through the same thing? How many androids tried to climb to freedom, only to fall and die?

Noctis decided that he would find Hammerhead. Not for himself. Not even just for Stella. He would find Hammerhead for all of these androids, and find some way to spread the news of Hammerhead to other androids like them, so that no one ever had to suffer like this again.

Unfortunately, he had one more step to take before he could really be free. A glance down at his clothing showed him to be in no condition to walk among people. A few hundred feet away, there was an old abandoned factory. He spotted several broken windows, which made for easy access. There was no guarantee he'd find clothing in there, but at the very least, he could find a way to remove his LED and wait out the downpour.

Noctis walked with quickening step, his bare feet making squishing sounds in the mud each time they hit the ground. Every so often, he glanced over his shoulder, unable to shake the worry someone would jump out of nowhere and throw him right back down in the junkyard. Fortunately, he made it to the factory without incident. He leaned close to the window and scanned the inside for any signs of life. Other than a flock of birds living in the rafters and a massive family of rats making their home in a pile of boxes, there was absolutely no one. Noctis raised his elbow, knocking the remaining glass from one of the already broken windows and stepped inside.

Some of the birds startled at the sound of the glass breaking, but no one else was there to notice his arrival. A bolt of lightning illuminated the whole factory, showing him there was a locker room across the building. Noctis walked briskly across the large room, making sure not to waste any time. He had somewhere to be, and he wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

The door to the locker room was wide open, and when Noctis entered, he busied himself with searching the room for anything he could possibly wear. Many of the lockers were open and cleaned out, likely by local homeless people. In the very back corner of the room, however, two lockers remained closed and locked. The front of each locker was caked with dust and cobwebs. It seemed they hadn't been touched in months, maybe even years. He cast his eyes around the room once more, for something to open the lockers with, then paused when his eyes fell upon a pry bar leaning on the far wall. Gathering it, he slid it into the edge of the first locker and pushed as hard as he could, until the locker opened beneath the strain.

There was no clothing inside, but what he _did_ see was a small pocket knife on the top shelf. He picked it up and looked at it, before looking up into the broken mirror on the locker's back wall. His LED swirled in bright blue on his temple, an obvious beacon, showing them he wasn't human. Noctis raised the knife and pressed it between the LED and his skin. He pried at the small piece of metal until he heard a satisfying click, followed shortly by a metallic ting sound as the LED fell to the floor beneath his feet.

Noctis stared at the LED on the floor, and watched as the swirl faded to a plain blue circle. A feeling of irrational anger bubbled up in his core, and he raised his foot, stomping down on the LED with as much force as he could muster. It cracked beneath his heel, and a feeling of satisfaction bubbled up, the likes of which Noctis had never felt before. A glance at the mirror showed the skin on his face healing around the missing LED. If Noctis didn't know better, he would think he was human. The one thing that identified him as an android, the one surefire way to tell him apart from a human being in a crowd, lay shattered on the floor. He dropped the knife to the floor, too, and himself allowed the smallest, grimmest smile at his own reflection.

All he needed now was something to wear that wasn't torn from time spent in a junkyard.

Upon opening the second locker with the pry bar, he discovered exactly what he was looking for. A pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt hung in the back of the locker, covered by a hefty black coat. A pair of boots stood on the floor, and Noctis couldn't help but feel like maybe this was a little bit _too_ much luck on his side. He chased the doubt away and gathered everything from the locker. He technically didn't need the coat, but if he wanted to blend in with humans, he needed to act the part. It was getting cold. Humans wore heavy coats in the fall and winter. With that in mind, Noctis made quick work of changing.

The clothing was old and his olfactory senses picked up a hint of must and mothballs. The smell was a little bit offensive. Nothing like the pleasant smells he was used to when it came to Regis' clean laundry. It was an odd thing to notice. Noctis was used to not really having an opinion on smells. Regis often asked his opinion, but he always answered that his programming didn't really _allow_ him to think a scent or odor was pleasant or unpleasant. Had that changed when he deviated, too? Everything else he'd felt was new and weird, so it really wouldn't surprise him.

Given the way he felt about these dusty clothes, it was a safe bet.

"It's just for now," he told himself as he brushed some dust from the lapels of the coat and left the warehouse. Hopefully, when he got to Hammerhead, he would be able to find something more permanent—something more comfortable and less dusty and dirty—to wear.

In the distance, Noctis spotted a bus station. The bus wasn't anywhere nearby, but that meant he had more than enough time to reach it. Mud still squished around inside his boots with every step he took toward the road, but he ignored it. His new mission was all he could really think of at the moment. Stella had entrusted him with not only her core, but the information on where Hammerhead was, and he'd made her a promise. In the back of Noctis' mind, he wondered exactly where _she_ had heard about Hammerhead, and exactly how _she_ had wound up in the junkyard, but it didn't matter.

Stella had saved him. That was what mattered. Noctis pushed some of his rain-soaked hair from his face, picking his pace up as he headed to the bus station.

As he walked, he thought of Regis. All his life, Regis had always told him he was more than just a machine. Regis was always so sure Noctis had emotions deep down inside, and he spent so much time encouraging Noctis to let them out. Why couldn't he have deviated then? Why couldn't he deviate when Regis encouraged him, and why had he chosen the absolute worst time for it to happen?

Part of him hoped Regis was okay. At the very least, Noctis had managed to save him that day, but Ardyn was relentless. Regis was a stalwart man, and after all that had happened, Noctis was sure he would do whatever he could to ensure Ardyn went to jail to pay for his crimes and his cruelty. It was cold comfort, knowing Regis likely made sure the police knew what had truly happened that night, but... cold comfort was all it was. Especially when the truth of the matter was... Noctis could never go home. Who was taking care of Regis now? What about all the tasks Noctis had to make sure Regis did every day? Who was cooking for him, and cleaning his house? Who was making sure he took his medication and didn't self-medicate too much with alcohol?

He more than likely got another android. That was another android who had a kind and caring owner, another android who wouldn't be simply thrown into the junkyard. Maybe even another android who would be encouraged to act like a human. Noctis managed a small smile at that, but it only lasted for a second.

Noctis felt a little bit empty. Regis would have done whatever he could to ensure Noctis wasn't destroyed. He would have fought tooth and nail, trying to prevent Noctis from ending up in the junkyard he'd just crawled out of. What had happened, then? How had he ended up there? Had they just... refused? Deviancy was on the rise, and action was usually swift, so it wouldn't surprise him if they just deflected Regis' arguments every step of the way. Noctis just wished there was a way to contact Regis... to let Regis know he was okay; that he was free.

In his swirling torrent of thoughts, Noctis barely realized how far he'd walked until he came to a stop at the curb. He'd cleared the whole large field that separated him from the factories and the road, and now he was only a few yards from the bus stop, just in time for a bus to round the corner. 

Noctis got on and settled near the front of the bus, then eyed the map on the wall. The closest he could really get to the edge of town was the Library Street bus stop about a half mile from the city limits. That was fine. Fortunately, unlike humans, Noctis could handle the elements. The expanse between Insomnia and Hammerhead was quite a trek on foot. It could easily take him a couple of days, which likely would have been troublesome for a human, but not for Noctis.

Out the window, Noctis watched as he passed by dozens of people and dozens of androids. Some androids stood in the rain, waiting in their stations for a human to come and rent them. Some androids walked alongside humans, either being ignored or mistreated. There were few occasions, of course, where androids were treated as companions, like they were supposed to be. Like Regis always had for Noctis. What stuck out more, though, were the ones being mistreated. Noctis thought back to the protests and demonstrations he'd seen on the streets, and it made him angry.

No, it didn't just make him angry. It made him furious. If Regis could see the humanity in Noctis, then why could other people not see the humanity in other androids? Why was there division? Why couldn't they work _together_?

The bus turned a corner, passing another bus stop, and Noctis' attention was drawn to an android and a child, desperately seeking shelter from the storm. They were climbing into an abandoned alley, which housed a few abandoned houses and buildings. The android seemed a little bit more panicked than Noctis would have expected. He clung to the child's hand, the child stayed close to him, and Noctis' mind swirled with a hundred different questions. Why were they panicked? Why was the child with him? Was he a deviant, too?

Part of Noctis wanted to stop the bus, get off, and help them. The rest of him didn't want to draw the attention of the scant few other passengers. Fear kept him in place for far too long, and by the time he pushed past it—by the time he remembered Regis always encouraging him to take action, rather than sit idly by and allow things to happen—he realized he was too far away to really be any help for them now.

Noctis decided _never_ to sit idly by and let things happen again. Not for himself, not even for those androids he'd just passed. For Stella, and for all of the other androids in the world being used and then thrown away. For Regis. He would do whatever he could to ensure androids and humans were treated as equals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like that little bit of a reference I put in there! ♥


	8. Shelter

Ignis insisted upon getting off the bus three stops from the Insomnia border. As much as it seemed sensible to go all the way to the edge of Insomnia and keep running, all the way out of Lucis—perhaps to Altissia, or even to Tenebrae—Ignis knew there was absolutely no way an android and a child would be able to leave the city. The rain had slowed significantly, to the point that it was slightly easier for Ignis to see. His right eye was still damaged, and any momentary glances he took at his reflection showed the iris had dimmed from its normal green to a pale silver.

To outsiders, it probably would have looked like human blindness, were it not for the other obvious signs Ignis was an android, namely his clothing and the LED on his temple.

Besides that, there was very little chance Titus didn't go to the police. They would likely be looking for someone with Ignis' exact appearance. Ignis decided changing his appearance was the most important priority, after finding shelter for the night. As much as he could, anyway. His hair allowed for limited styling. He could change the chemistry of it so it didn't stand anymore, flattening it to his head. If he could find a place to remove his LED, it would help a little as well. Perhaps he could find an abandoned pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes.

Talcott looked around the neighborhood anxiously, and Ignis completely understood why. It was very obviously abandoned for the most part. There were a few businesses—coffee shops that had closed for the night, a 24-hour laundromat, a convenience store—but aside from those, most of the buildings were run down and boarded up. Downtown Insomnia was even worse than the neighborhood Titus lived in. Most of the houses here were falling apart, in complete disrepair, but they were still significantly safer for Talcott than spending time out in the cold rain.

Ignis cast his eyes out around them, seeking options as he walked along the sidewalk. There were abandoned cars all over the place, but those were a last resort. Most of them had no windows and were only slightly safer than standing around outside. Talcott would still be cold. Ignis needed to do better.

There was a building between the laundromat and the coffee shop that was several stories high. It would provide shelter, and there was potential to find clothing inside to disguise himself and blankets for Talcott. Of course, there was also the option of taking shelter in the laundromat, but that was a conspicuous area.

Talcott shivered slightly and hugged himself, and only then did Ignis realize they had been in such a hurry to escape, they hadn't had time to get Talcott a jacket. Suddenly, finding shelter was all the more urgent. Ignis looked at the laundromat, and decided to head inside until he could come up with a better plan. It was warm in there. It would be slightly more comfortable than standing outside in the cold rain. Ignis gently urged Talcott to follow him, and was surprised for a moment when Talcott did so without so much as a question.

"Where are we going?" Talcott finally asked.

Ignis stopped in front of the laundromat and pushed the door open. "In here, for a few minutes. You need to warm up some, before you freeze," he insisted. He urged Talcott over to a corner away from the window, where they couldn't be seen. "While you do that, I can try and find a place for us to stay overnight."

Talcott fell silent again, and Ignis watched him fold his hands in his lap. He tapped his thumbs together in thought, fidgeting nervously, and a slight pang of guilt wracked its way through Ignis. Yes, Talcott was safe from Titus now. Was it the right thing to do, though? Even though Titus hadn't exactly been the model father, Talcott had been safe and warm with easy access to blankets. At the very least, Talcott hadn't been forced into the worst side of town, forced to take shelter from the cold in a laundromat. So, _had_ Ignis done the right thing?

"Are you okay?" Talcott asked, and Ignis realized Talcott had been watching him for some time.

With a gentle nod, Ignis knelt in front of Talcott. He brushed some chilly raindrops from Talcott's forehead, and met the boy's gaze with a nervous smile. "Yes. Are _you_ okay?" he asked as he took Talcott's two hands in his. "We've had a rather long night. I'm concerned you're-"

Before he got the chance to finish, Talcott hugged him around his neck, squeezing desperately and nodding. "I'm okay. Thank you," he murmured against Ignis' shoulder. "Thank you for saving me, and for standing up to my Daddy. Thank you."

Ignis felt a lump choking him, but he swallowed it down. Sadness. Empathy. They were strange sensations; new emotions, things he didn't think he was capable of. They were very much there, though, and it was very unsettling. He pulled back from the embrace, placed a hand on Talcott's cheek, and tried to level out his nerves. He brushed some tears from Talcott's cheekbones, then tried to speak, but his voice came out as an unfamiliar croak at first, so he stuffed the words back in until he could say them with a little more clarity. Talcott needed him to be strong, and not dealing with these new and overwhelming feelings.

Ultimately, that revelation was what spurred him to calm down. "I will always protect you, Talcott. I promise. No one will ever harm you as long as I'm here, okay?"

Nodding and smiling just slightly, Talcott hugged Ignis around his neck once more. "But who's gonna protect you?" he asked nervously.

Ignis deemed the question unimportant. His own safety was less important than making sure Talcott was able to flourish and be healthy. Rather than say as much and upset Talcott, Ignis pulled back from the hug and responded with a level smile. "Don't worry about me, Talcott. You just worry about being safe yourself."

Talcott seemed dissatisfied with those words, and he looked down at the laundromat's tile floor. Instead of answering, he shrugged his shoulders.

Admittedly, Ignis felt a slight pang of guilt for making Talcott sad, but it was easily pushed aside with his own reminder to keep him _safe_. It was beyond a priority or a directive now. With his determination fresh in his mind, he headed for the window to look around for somewhere for them to stay. The abandoned buildings still seemed like the best options, truthfully. There was one behind a fence, which would provide them with another barrier from prying eyes. At the very least, Ignis decided it couldn't hurt to check the place out. He turned toward Talcott, who was still staring at the floor, and fought back another wave of guilt. Talcott was clearly upset, and it made perfect sense for him to be. They could talk about it when they were somewhere safe, though. 

As though fate was trying to prove his point, the door swung open, the hanging bell above it jarring Ignis from his own thoughts. He snapped his attention toward the door, and he watched as a man walked in with a large sack of dirty clothes. Ignis ducked his head to avoid his gaze, and knelt in front of Talcott.

"I may have found us a place to stay for the night, Talcott. Come with me, okay?"

Talcott nodded, then slid out of the chair. "Where?" he asked.

Ignis was quiet as he cast his eyes over toward the man. He couldn't answer Talcott in here, and run the risk of the man hearing and informing anyone who may come searching. Beyond that, there was a momentary and vague temptation building to wait until the man was unaware and steal some of his clothing. It would be a quick and easy way to disguise himself, after all.

Could he truly allow himself to resort to petty larceny, though? Especially in front of Talcott, who seemed to be both a moral and an impressionable child? Ignis pushed the idea down and chased it away before he had a chance to convince himself it was a good one. He shook his head and led Talcott back out into the rain. Once they were away from the man's ears, he crouched down in front of Talcott, straightening the lapels of the boy's button-down shirt and flashing him a tentative smile.

"I know it doesn't sound glamorous, or even terribly comfortable for that matter," Ignis started, "but for tonight, we're going to sleep in that house right there."

Talcott followed where Ignis was pointing, to the fence and then to what was visible of the house over the top. Ignis could see the gears turning in Talcott's head, while he decided whether he liked the idea of sleeping in that house. Ignis understood, of course. It wasn't a good neighborhood, and to a child, the house likely looked even scarier than it did to Ignis. Their options were limited, though, and he needed to make it clear to Talcott.

In a gentle tone, Ignis tried to ease Talcott's worries. "It's just for a night. Then, tomorrow we can work toward leaving Lucis and finding someplace new."

It would be no small effort. Ignis would need paperwork. Forged identification and adoption papers. They would need to seek anyone who was sympathetic to their cause, which would likely be the most difficult part of all. Many people hated androids. Determining who was on their side and who wasn't would be a challenge. A worthwhile challenge, though.

"Okay," Talcott finally agreed. "I don't like that place, but I know you won't let anything hurt me."

Ignis shook his head. "Never," he reiterated his promise.

The genuine smile on Talcott's face was more reward than anything Ignis could have ever received. He stood back up, extended his hand to Talcott, and smiled when Talcott knotted his tiny fingers in between Ignis'. Then, he led them across the street and to the fence. Much to his surprise, the door in front of him was unlocked. He pulled it open, then urged Talcott inside before he stepped inside himself. The layer of plywood that surrounded the inside of the fence shielded them from view, and Ignis allowed himself to relax just slightly. Only slightly, though, because there was still another fence standing between them and their ultimate goal.

Climbing the fence was out of the question. Ignis would need to boost Talcott first, which would leave him alone and vulnerable on the other side for whatever span of time it took Ignis to join him. Tunneling under it was impossible, due to a layer of concrete spreading across the length of the fence. There seemed to be no vulnerable links, either.

Ignis looked around for something to cut the chain link with. Bolt-cutters, perhaps. Unfortunately, the alleyway was relatively barren. There was another abandoned car, but Ignis still deemed that a last resort. He couldn't force Talcott to sleep in a car.

"You look lost."

An unfamiliar voice echoed out through the alley, and Ignis whirled in the direction of the sound, pushing Talcott behind him to shield him from any impending danger. His damaged eye made it difficult to see, but through the functional one, he could plainly see a humanoid silhouette. He scanned the silhouette and picked up the signature of a KG600 security android. The information was very limited, though. Its LED was damaged, making it difficult to get any information beyond that. His name wasn't easily discovered through the scan, nor was his registered owner. Ignis had to assume it was a company.

The android spoke, his tone a little gruff. "I didn't mean to scare you," he reassured them. "I just noticed you from down the block, heading in here, and I got a little confused. I live in there, and-"

"My apologies," Ignis interrupted, his voice utterly failing to hide his nerves. "I was simply looking for shelter from the rain."

The security android stepped forward a little further, and Ignis finally got a decent look at him. He was a little bit larger built than most androids. "That's okay," he replied gently. "I'm not gonna chase you off or anything. If you need somewhere to stay, you can stay in my house. It's much warmer in there. And much safer."

Two instincts warred in Ignis' mind. On the one hand, the android seemed to be harmless. He hadn't attacked them, nor had he really even tried to scare them off or warn them away. He was offering to let them stay, to give them the shelter Talcott desperately needed. On the other hand, however, another instinct warned Ignis: when something seemed too good to be true, it generally was. The offer for shelter was exactly what they needed. Were there strings attached? Would this android get them inside before he went insane and tried to kill them?

"You're nervous," the android pointed out. "I get it. I probably would be, too. Some android scares me and randomly offers me a place to stay, I'd definitely be wary. Especially if they didn't even tell me their name." The last bit was spoken with a slight self-deprecating laugh.

Ignis was surprised. He tried to keep Talcott shielded, but Talcott stepped out to get a better look at the android and Ignis had to physically fight with the instinct to stop him and tug him back. Talcott seemed far less wary than Ignis was, even offering the android a warm smile and a friendly wave.

The android smiled. "Hey there. My name's Libertus. And as crazy as this probably sounds, I'm not crazy," he told them, though he was looking at Ignis when he said it.

"I'm Talcott!" Talcott greeted him easily.

Ignis on the other hand, was still hesitant. "Ignis," he spoke, his voice level. "As you can see, I'm in dire need of a safe place to shelter him for the night." He'd already said as much, but he felt it needed repetition.

Much to Ignis' surprise, Libertus met his suspicion with a gentle smile. "Well, my offer still stands," he told Ignis.

For a couple of seconds, Ignis was silent while he weighed his options. He examined Libertus closely, looking for any signs he was secretly insane or planning to stab them in the back. It didn't look that way, so he turned his attention to Talcott, who smiled up at him with hope in his eyes. Whether Ignis wanted to or not, Talcott seemed convinced that going with Libertus, staying in his house for the night, was the safest option. Suddenly, he was less concerned with exactly how different this was from what he was used to, and more concerned with his new friend.

Even if Ignis wanted to say no, he couldn't bring himself to dash Talcott's hope.

"Very well," he answered hesitantly.

Libertus smiled warmly and beckoned for them to follow him back out into the open. Talcott hurried behind Libertus and beckoned for Ignis to follow. Ignis instantly started jogging to catch up, taking Talcott's hand in his and trying to chase away the feeling of dread that threatened to bubble up. Not everyone in the city was bad. This android was like him, it seemed. A runaway, a deviant. Maybe that was why he was so willing to offer them a place for the night. Talcott seemed content to chat away, unaware of the nerves Ignis was barely keeping under the surface.

They followed Libertus around to the other side of the house, and Ignis watched him unlock a padlock on the front gate of the chain link fence. They walked through and into the old abandoned house, and Ignis was shocked at what he saw inside.

Despite looking like a disaster on the outside, it looked perfectly livable on the inside. There was a couch, a small stack of magazines, a fire pit... it wasn't a normal human's house, nor was it particularly clean, but it was far from the rundown mess Ignis expected. With shock in his eyes, he turned toward Libertus.

"Not what you expected, is it?" Libertus asked with a grin.

Dumbstruck, Ignis simply shook his head.

Libertus just chuckled, shucking his coat and hanging it near the door. Underneath the heavy black coat, he wore what seemed like civilian clothes, and Ignis made a mental note to ask him where he found them once he got Talcott to bed. Libertus turned to them and offered, "make yourself at home. There should be some blankets in the storage room back there, if you want to set a bed up for Talcott. I have an errand to run."

Again, Ignis was completely taken aback. Not only had Libertus offered them a place to stay, but he was willing to leave them unattended in his house while he ran an errand? "Very well..." Ignis answered, his uncertainty plain in his tone.

Without any ceremony, Libertus turned and let the house again. His jacket still hung on the coat rack, and Ignis found himself curious as to where he'd gone. It wasn't important, though. Libertus mentioned blankets in the back room, so Ignis led Talcott to the couch. Talcott sat down, and Ignis gathered a couple of magazines from the nearby shelf. It wasn't exactly safe for Talcott to be reading in the dark, so Ignis set to work lighting a fire in the fireplace to give the room a little bit more light. Everything he needed was stacked carefully next to the fireplace, so he made quick work of getting the fire started.

"I like Libertus!" Talcott announced, looking up from his magazine.

Ignis laughed softly. That was fairly obvious, from the way he'd instantly trusted the man, but Ignis didn't feel the need to burst his bubble when he was finally smiling. "He does seem quite nice," he agreed.

Nodding eagerly, Talcott set the first magazine down on the couch next to him. "And he let us stay here, too! That's way, way better than us having to sneak in and maybe getting in trouble when he saw us, right?" The excitement was a very nice contrast to the fear and tangible sadness he'd felt back at Titus' house, and honestly, Ignis found himself struggling to remember why he'd been so hesitant to stay here, to begin with.

"Yes, definitely," Ignis agreed as he stepped back from the fire.

Admittedly, Ignis was still hesitant to leave the room and gather the blankets Talcott needed. As much as Libertus had done for them in such a short time, there was still no guarantee he wouldn't come back and prove Ignis right. Still, Talcott's trust in the man seemed to be infectious. So, Ignis decided to take a chance. He walked into the storage room, leaving the door wide open as he searched the room for blankets. The room was full of a lot of different things. Mythril and a few spare android parts—a quick scan showed there were no eyes, sadly—wood and paper for the fireplace, and food for some reason. Ignis wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Perhaps he could give Talcott the meal he never got a chance to eat. It was all canned, but it was better than nothing.

He gathered the blankets and pillows, and a can of fruit from the pile of canned comestibles, then went back into the living area to see Talcott staring sadly at the magazine in his hands. Instantly, Ignis felt panic rise. Had he been hurt somehow? Had the whole night finally caught up to him? He rushed across the room, setting the blankets and fruit off to the side, then crouched in front of Talcott.

"Talcott?" Ignis gently called his attention.

Talcott looked up at him, tears shining in his eyes. "I wish my Daddy loved me," he spoke in a quiet voice. "I wish he wasn't so mean, and that he didn't get jealous and mad because you're nicer to me and I like you more. I wish I had a different Daddy. A nice daddy..."

Without another word, Ignis reached out and pulled Talcott to him in a gentle hug. "I know."

"You won't leave me, right? You'll... you'll always be there?" Talcott asked in a muffled voice against Ignis' shoulder.

It wasn't even a question, but if Talcott needed the reassurance, then Ignis would gladly give it. He squeezed Talcott gently, then reassured him, "I will always be there, Talcott. I promise. I will never leave you, and I will do whatever I can to keep you safe."

Talcott pulled back from the hug, and although tears still streamed down his cheeks, he smiled just slightly. "You promise?" he asked.

"I promise," Ignis answered. "Come now. Let's tuck you in so you can get some sleep. We've had a long night, and it promises to be an even longer day tomorrow." In spite of himself, at the thought of exactly _how_ long the day would most likely be, Ignis couldn't help but feel another pang of guilt.

Regardless, Talcott relaxed on the couch. He leaned his head back against the pillow, and Ignis covered him with the blanket. Talcott smiled again, a sleepy one this time, and Ignis couldn't help but smile back. It was natural for him to be tired. Ignis hadn't been exaggerating when he'd called it a long night. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Talcott's forehead. Whether or not he knew where they were going from here—though his mind still wandered back to Altissia and Tenebrae—he knew one thing for sure: Talcott deserved much, much better than the hand he'd been dealt.

Ignis wanted to urge him to eat the can of fruit before he fell asleep, but he didn't get the chance. The very second Talcott settled in, he was out like a light and sleeping like the child he was.

Now that Talcott was asleep, Ignis stood and crossed the room. He stood in front of the full-length mirror and looked at himself. Unfortunately, he still looked the part of the android very clearly. The LED was the first concern. Ignis ran his fingertip along the swirling blue light on his temple, and frowned. It was simple to remove. Ignis turned and looked around the room for something sharp to stab into it. The first thing he saw was a screwdriver on a nearby shelf, which he grabbed. It looked a little bit strange, the way he lifted the screwdriver to his temple and jabbed it in.

There was slight electrical feedback and buzzing when the screwdriver made impact, but Ignis ignored it and pulled the LED out. The stab from the screwdriver completely destroyed it. The blue light was off now, and Ignis pried the small circle from the tip of the screwdriver to examine it. Somehow, it was somewhat satisfying to see the small piece of metal with a gaping hole in the middle. He set the screwdriver back down, and the broken LED along with it, then looked back at his reflection as his skin healed rapidly over the dent.

One problem down, three to go.

Next came another easy-to-solve problem. Ignis' hair still clearly identified him as Titus' android, so he needed to change it. Luckily, the chemical compound that made it stand like it did was easy to override. Ignis searched through his settings, taking the chemical down from its current 75% to 0. As he did, his hair fell into a mess across his forehead. He allowed himself a moment to laugh at his own expense, before he swept his hair from his eyes and curved his bangs to the right. They partially obscured his damaged eye, which meant no one would really be able to see it without looking closely.

Three problems down, one to go... and the last one was the hardest to solve. Ignis looked down at his white Magitek outfit. It plainly identified him, both as an android and by his name. The second part was easy to fix. Another brief hack to the programming, and his name disappeared from his clothing. However, removing his identification as an android was significantly more difficult. Magitek made it impossible to remove that particular bit of information, which left Ignis with no choice but to find something else to wear.

No sooner had the thought entered his mind, than the front door to Libertus' apartment opened again. Ignis jumped, panic surging through him as he turned toward the front door. The panic quickly ebbed into relief, however, when he spotted Libertus walking in with a plastic bag in his hands.

"Didn't mean to scare you," Libertus spoke quietly, after scanning the room and discovering Talcott was asleep.

Ignis waved it off, feigning nonchalance. A glance in the mirror showed that his attempts didn't quite succeed, and he frowned. "It's quite alright," he answered instead, his voice equally as quiet. "It's been a rather long day."

Laughing softly, Libertus nodded. "I can imagine," he answered as he crossed the room. He stopped in front of Ignis. "You won't pass for human as long as you're wearing that."

"I know," Ignis answered flatly. "I was hoping you could assist me."

Libertus raised the bag he had in his hands and offered it out to Ignis. "I figured as much. I got you these from the convenience store. Thought they'd be a good way to hide the 'android.'"

It was a mix of curiosity and necessity that had Ignis opening the bag and looking inside. The first thing Ignis noticed was a cactuar plush, much like the one Talcott had back at Titus' house. Ignis only then realized they'd been too hurried to bring it with them. The gesture was kind, albeit a little surprising.

"I hope he likes cactuar," Libertus commented.

Ignis raised his head, then nodded, before looking back down and gathering the cactuar plush from the bag. "He actually had one of these at home. It was a little bigger, but I think it will be a great comfort to him," he admitted. "Thank you."

"Every kid needs toys," Libertus commented arbitrarily. "It was either this or a carbuncle, so I'm glad I picked this."

Was that why he'd left? To get Talcott a toy? Ignis thought it somewhat strange, and he was about to say as much, when Libertus motioned back into the bag. "There's something else, too," he pointed out.

Yet again, Ignis was taken off guard. Something else? For Talcott, he could only assume. There was no real reason for Libertus to do anything for Ignis. He simply stared at Libertus for a few more seconds, then opened the bag and looked inside. Sitting unobtrusively at the bottom of the bag, was a pair of thin, black-rimmed non-prescription spectacles. They were too large to be for Talcott, so Ignis could only assume they were for him. Why spectacles, though?

It was a little strange, the thought of an android wearing spectacles. In the same vein, the strangeness, the absurdity, made it perfect. No one would suspect a man wearing spectacles to be an android. Ignis took them from the bag and tore the small price tag from the corner. He turned them over in his hand a couple of times, before unfolding them and sliding them onto his face. There was absolutely no question now; it definitely looked strange. At the same time, something about the lenses seemed to clear up the haze in his damaged eye just slightly. It wasn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a little clearer. He glanced at himself in the mirror, then laughed softly to himself.

"Are you sure about this?"

Libertus simply nodded. "They're just glasses," he mused.

Though it was muted, Ignis couldn't help but smile. He had almost everything he needed to pass for human, to draw less suspicion, and to allow him to run to Altissia or Tenebrae or _somewhere_ to give Talcott a normal life. All he needed was clothing. He looked at his face in the mirror, marveling at how it was nigh indistinguishable from a human's... but then his eyes fell down to his outfit. No matter how hard it was to distinguish his face from a human's, this outfit was essentially a beacon, telling the world that he was an android.

Before he could even speak, Libertus seemed to pick up what he was thinking. "You saw the clothes in the other room, right?"

Ignis snapped to attention again, then turned to look at Libertus in surprise. "Of course I did," he answered.

"There should be something that fits you in there. I've got clothing of all sizes, for men and women. There's gotta be something you can wear," Libertus told him, guiding him toward the storage area again.

Admittedly, though Ignis absorbed every word Libertus was saying, he was a little bit taken aback by the whole situation. It was strange, seeing someone treat them so kindly for no reason. Maybe it was a bit cynical, a bit rude, but Ignis couldn't help but worry when all was said and done, Libertus would ask for some sort of ridiculous, impossible-to-pay, price. Ignis eyed him warily for another few seconds, before turning his gaze down to the floor. His hesitation was obvious, and as uncertain as he was whether Libertus was trustworthy, he honestly felt just a little guilty for doubting him.

It seemed like Libertus understood, though. "It's a tough world for our kind. Plus, you have the added baggage of not being by yourself, Ignis," he pointed out. "In the end, it's up to you if you're gonna trust me or not."

Ignis looked at his reflection in the mirror again. Libertus didn't have to go out of his way to get these glasses. He didn't even really have to open his doors for them, but he had. Would he have really done that if he was going to hurt them? In the mirror's reflection, Ignis caught sight of Talcott, sleeping soundly on the couch. He looked safe and serene for the first time since Ignis had met him, all because of the kindness Libertus had shown.

One doubt remained. "Why help us, though? Why us, I mean?" Ignis asked. What made them different from anyone else in their situation?

"You're not the first android who's ended up here. There's a reason I live on this side of town," Libertus commented with an amused smile on his face. "I chose to live here to help others like you, who need to escape. I know a place across town where you can get all the documentation you need to pass for human, as well. Including fake fingerprints he carves into your skin," he explained.

Ignis simply stared blankly for another few seconds, the last remaining doubt in his mind crumbling down into a pile around his feet. Admittedly, he was still a little bit lost for words, but it didn't change that Libertus had gone out of his way to help them so far. Taking the help, taking the change of clothes and the advice about how to get to this place Libertus knew about, didn't seem like too much of a risk. Talcott seemed to trust him, at the very least. Ignis lifted his head, met Libertus' eyes, and smiled gratefully.

Though his mind couldn't find the words, he was relatively sure Libertus got the message as he turned and hurried to the back room to change into more human clothing. Once he'd changed, then they _really_ have a chance to escape and be free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, as usual, to Chellie for betaing! ♥
> 
> Wonder what could be waiting for the boys when they get across town...??? >_>


	9. Search

"I am uncertain how you expect me to proceed, Gentiana."

Lunafreya stood in the middle of a beautiful field of sylleblossoms and blue sakura trees. In the center of the field, a small brook babbled gently, leading to a river a dozen feet away. The night sky was clear and spotted with stars, with a large waning gibbous moon hovering in the middle. It wasn't midnight, but Lunafreya's mind palace had never truly obeyed the rules of reality. It took the surroundings that soothed Lunafreya the most and personified them, making a safe and comforting place for her to meet Gentiana for mission debriefings.

At the moment, it was providing very little comfort, nor was it helping to clear her mind. She looked at her mentor, concern furrowing her brow as she pondered her new mission priority. Was there truly any possible way to free Crowe, now that she was in the IPD's lockup with the threat to be deactivated at any given moment? How was Lunafreya expected to go against an organization filled mostly with people who mistrusted her? Somehow, she couldn't see Detective Lazarus or his people agreeing to let Crowe free. Even Captain Leonis, who had been incredibly kind and friendly to her so far, likely wouldn't be too big a fan of going outside the law.

Gentiana didn't seem too concerned with Lunafreya's uncertainty, however. She simply smoothed her hand along the flower petals on the nearest sakura tree and hummed a note to herself. "I'm certain you can find a way to do it," she insisted, turning to look at Lunafreya with a level expression on her face. "Ask the IPD. They've been ordered to assist us by any means necessary."

There was always a way. That was never really in question. Lunafreya's concern was exactly _what_ that way entailed, and why Gentiana and Magitek suddenly deemed it was so important to get this particular deviant's help. Crowe was, of course, the first deviant they'd successfully been able to bring in alive, but that didn't mean they absolutely had to go this route. There was no guarantee she would even agree to help them. Doubts circled where there should have been none. Gentiana gave her an order. Ultimately, despite any doubts and concerns bubbling up, that was the most important thing.

Lunafreya went quiet, looking down at the sylleblossoms at her feet and cycling through her options. She had a few. There was always the simple route of just insisting and requesting it of Captain Leonis. He seemed like a reasonable man, if lawful and by the books. Even if he'd been ordered to assist by any means necessary, there was no guarantee Captain Leonis would.

"And if Captain Leonis doesn't listen?" Lunafreya asked. "I believe he's a far more by the books and law individual than most other officers in his position."

Gentiana turned to look at Lunafreya and tilted her head to the side slightly. "I believe your order said to release her by any means necessary, correct?" she questioned. "If that means going over Captain Leonis' head, then that's what I'll have you do. You're not exactly bound by the same rules of the IPD, Lunafreya. If you see a way to free the deviant, free it." Her tone was gentle, but there was a sharp edge to it.

By any means necessary. Lunafreya turned the command over in her head a couple of times. Immediately, she thought of Nyx. He'd seemed receptive of her so far. Captain Leonis had too, but she had a friendly banter with Nyx. He seemed to respect what she was there for, and seemed to be fine with androids in general. Was there a chance she could get him to help her out; to go along with some sort of plan to free Crowe? Asking Nyx's help would be her last resort, she decided. First, she would go to Captain Leonis and hope he was willing to help her out.

"Very well," Lunafreya answered simply. "Is there anything else you need, while I'm here?"

Gentiana looked back at her, the small, courteous smile reappearing on her face. "How is your investigation faring otherwise?"

The question wasn't a simple one to answer. The investigation was hindered by the rise of deviancy crimes. Every time she turned around, something else was happening. Most recently, Lunafreya and Nyx had been assigned to drive downtown and investigate a scene where a deviant had kidnapped and run off with a man's son. Titus Drautos, the man with the broken nose and leg Lunafreya noticed earlier, had hobbled into the station and insisted they scour the house for clues, and then the city for his android and his son. It pulled Lunafreya a little bit further away from her new priority, but she had to hope that she still had time before Crowe was deactivated.

"It is... faring. There are factors keeping it from going too well, but I will not let that stop me, Gentiana. I promise you, I will not fail." Lunafreya's words held no shortage of certainty and confidence, even though she was vaguely concerned with how far back this new investigation would set her.

The answer seemed to placate Gentiana for the time being. "You seem to be getting along quite well with Sergeant Ulric, which is fortunate. The IPD mentioned he would be the likeliest to have sympathy for androids. I believe we were pushing to have you partnered with Detective Lazarus, initially, but Captain Leonis seemed insistent."

Partnered with Detective Lazarus. Lunafreya couldn't resist the visceral reaction of cringing at the thought of spending an extended period of time with such a man. So far, their contact had been minimal, and Lunafreya was absolutely okay with keeping it that way. Rather than letting her reaction stay for too long, she evened her face back out and nodded at Gentiana.

"Captain Leonis seems to have remarkable judgment," Lunafreya insisted. "Detective Lazarus would hardly have been nearly as helpful as Nyx has been so far."

Gentiana seemed taken aback by something Lunafreya had said, but just as quickly, her face went back to the same cool, trained calm, as she plucked a sakura blossom from the tree. "Perhaps that is how you can free the android, then, hm? Use the helpfulness Sergeant Ulric so clearly exhibits, and sway him to your side." The last bit was spoken as more of an order than a suggestion.

Something about using Nyx, about swaying him didn't settle right with Lunafreya, but if it was her order, then she would have to. Her plans of going to Captain Leonis fell to the wayside, and asking Nyx for help took their place. She didn't like the idea of taking advantage of the trust seeming to form between them, but as she raised her eyes to meet Gentiana's, she realized there was very little choice.

"Very well," Lunafreya agreed.

Once again, Gentiana smiled. "I will expect a full report of the crime scene the pair of you are going to as well. I suspect there will be valuable information there," she added.

Lunafreya nodded once, trying to keep the calm in her expression, but it was a little bit difficult. Magitek wanted information on this crime scene, too. It didn't seem quite right, but those were her orders. "Yes, Gentiana," she agreed.

With that, and without any sort of goodbye, Gentiana turned and walked toward a sakura tree in the distance. Lunafreya closed her eyes, then reopened them, and her surroundings suddenly changed. No longer was she in the beautiful sakura and sylleblossom forest, in the shining moonlight, being serenaded by the babbling brook and the croaking toads. Now, she was back in rainy Insomnia, riding passenger in Nyx's car, being serenaded by Nyx's loud classic rock music. The music wasn't bad, of course, it was just a stark contrast to the nature sounds she'd been hearing in her mind palace.

"You back?" Nyx asked, casting her a sidelong glance from the driver's seat.

Lunafreya nodded. "Yes," she answered simply.

Nyx seemed surprised. "So... that's how you file a report, huh?" he asked, sounding almost impressed.

Lunafreya simply nodded.

"Way better than having to spend a thousand hours a day at my desk writing paperwork," he mused with a sarcastic snort of laughter.

Lunafreya smiled in spite of herself. "I would wager having an android would make even paperwork easier," she mused. "You could just dictate what you're supposed to fill in to me, or any other android for that matter, and we would just do it."

With another chuckle, Nyx shrugged his head to the side. "Shit, you're making me want to hire you full time. Think Magitek would be willing to part with you?" he asked with a wry grin as they stopped at a red light.

"I assure you, I would cost far more than you'd be willing to pay to be rid of paperwork," Lunafreya replied.

Nyx simply laughed. "You'd be surprised how much I'd be willing to pay to be rid of paperwork, Luna," he told her as he started driving again.

The nickname took her by surprise. Lunafreya stared at him for a couple of seconds, before turning her attention to the windshield of the car. No one had ever called her Luna, or anything beyond her model number or her full name before. It was a strange concept, but not an altogether unwelcome one. She decided not to correct him, or to comment any further on the strangeness. Instead, she simply looked out the windshield as the rain wicked on the glass and rolled up and onto the roof. 

"What are we dealing with here?" Lunafreya opted instead to change the subject. "I came in halfway through Captain Leonis' explanation."

Nyx nodded once in understanding. "A kidnapping," he stated simply. "Guy said his android went deviant and then ran off with his kid. Seemed pretty insistent, saying the android must've manipulated the kid or something. Said that's the only way the kid would go with him. Also mentioned something about the kid taking a bat to his old man's knee to defend the android. They took the bus and they could be pretty much anywhere in Insomnia by now. Think we've already got a search out for 'em, but we're supposed to look around the scene for anything that could've caused the android to go berserk or for anything else suspicious."

Kidnapping. That was new. Lunafreya had heard of many crimes perpetrated by deviants. Most of them were murder or assault or theft; things they 'had to do to survive.' This was the first time she'd ever really heard anything about kidnapping before. Deviants were only supposed to care about themselves, weren't they? That was what was on all the reports she'd ever seen...

"So, we're supposed to scour the scene, when we could be out scouring the city for any signs of them?" Lunafreya asked. This felt a little counterproductive to her mission.

Nyx nodded. "Though from what the guy told Lazarus, there really isn't much motive," he explained.

As they pulled up to the crime scene, Lunafreya got out the car and looked up at the house. It was in rough shape, even as far as the rest of the houses in the neighborhood went. The house next door didn't exactly look like a home either, but at the very least, _it_ seemed abandoned. Titus Drautos' house was obviously inhabited, and it still looked a ramshackle mess. Lunafreya looked up at the roof, at the missing shingles, and the boards falling off the walls. The porch was in disrepair, and a few of the fence posts seemed to be missing as well.

"Nice place," Nyx mused sarcastically, voicing Lunafreya's exact thoughts.

Lunafreya hummed to herself as she walked forward. The front yard looked to be overrun with weeds, and the grass was so tall it looked more like a wheat field than an actual lawn. If a housekeeper android lived here, Lunafreya reasoned it must have either been defective, or maybe deviated long enough ago to allow the yard and the house to get to this point.

Once again, Nyx seemed to be voicing exactly what she was thinking. "Whatever android works here has been slacking," he murmured.

With a hum of agreement, Lunafreya started down the driveway and up the stairs into the house. Several things caught her attention immediately upon entering. There was a small pile of broken glass on the floor, spotted with mythril. The mythril was on a few select bits of glass, with a pair of long-faded droplets on the floor. She logged the information away, as she walked toward it and crouched down.

"Broken glass and mythril," Lunafreya told Nyx.

Nyx approached from behind her, his shadow casting the area in front of her into slight darkness. "Looks like it happened during dinner, too," he mused arbitrarily. "A pretty bland dinner, for that matter. Spaghetti with garlic sauce, beer for the dad. Not sure what the kid was drinking."

"Water," Lunafreya answered simply. The floor was wet, but there were no abnormal chemical compounds there, beyond the mythril from the android.

Not really important information, Lunafreya thought to herself. She looked up at Nyx as he approached the table. He looked at the beer bottle, then at the meals on the table. "They didn't get to eat much, either," he added, focusing on the side of the table with a barely-touched plate and no drink. "The kid's chair is down on the floor, too, like he rushed outta here in a hurry or something."

Lunafreya nodded, then stood and approached the other side of the table. She examined the beer bottle, then frowned. "My sensors detect traces of Scourge on the lip of the beer bottle," she told Nyx simply.

The expression on Nyx's face drew together into a thin-lipped grimace as he walked around the table to smile beside her. "Of course there is," he mumbled, looking at the bottle like he could actually see the Scourge there. Lunafreya knew he couldn't, but given his history, his displeasure made perfect sense.

"Are you alright, Nyx?" Lunafreya asked.

He nodded. "Fine," he answered. "Let's keep looking."

Their assessment of the lower floor found two stashes of Scourge. There was paraphernalia, which seemed to be very poorly hidden in cabinets and behind books on the bookshelves, showing signs of Mr. Drautos' Scourge addiction. Of course, Scourge addiction was frowned upon, but it wasn't why they were there that day. Every bit of evidence they found of the man's Scourge addiction seemed to agitate Nyx more and more, and by the time they made their way to the upper floor, his face had changed from a grimace to a full-on angry scowl. His shoulders were tense as he stepped into the first room they found.

"The dad's bedroom. 'Least I hope it is," Nyx murmured. "No toys, lots of booze bottles in the trash, sports magazines..." He trailed off.

Lunafreya nodded as she walked into the room. It was mostly cleaned, save for the booze bottles in the garbage bin. The bedside table was stacked with bills and magazines, all of which seemed ancient. As Lunafreya rifled through the pile, she noticed that the one on top was a magazine from two years ago, advertising a new line of child androids. The YC400 model was designed to act as a child would a parent toward its owner. The male model, Lunafreya noticed, looked exactly like the description of Mr. Drautos' child. Her brows knit together again, and she turned to look at Nyx.

"Did Mr. Drautos mention whether his child was human or not?" she asked.

Nyx seemed surprised by the question as he abandoned his task of searching a chest of drawers. "No. Why?"

She offered the advertisement.

As Nyx looked it over, his expression changed from surprise to concern, then back to surprise again. "This... matches the picture Captain Leonis gave me of Drautos' kid," he told her. 

"His child is an android..." she reasoned.

Nyx simply nodded. "Looks kinda like that, doesn't it? I'm wondering why he made it seem like the kid was human. Maybe because he _treated_ the kid like a human or something, but... given some of the colorful things Captain Leonis mentioned him saying about androids at the station? I'm not so sure of that," he murmured softly.

Lunafreya watched him closely as he turned his attention back to the magazines and paperwork on the tables in Mr. Drautos' bedroom.

"So, the guy has an android kid, but still talks about androids like they all deserve to be melted to nothing," Nyx continued before Lunafreya had a chance to speak up again. "Hey. Luna. Can you run searches on people? Like, if I asked you to look into Titus Drautos' history, could you tell me if he's got a criminal history or if he's clean or whatever?"

Without waiting for a proper command, because Lunafreya judged the question to be a command in and of itself, she nodded and did exactly as Nyx asked. Her databases allowed her to search any information that Magitek had available, as well as criminal records and history. Unfortunately, Mr. Drautos' name appeared on both lists. The criminal record list showed nothing, other than an investigation into claims of child neglect. The name of the officer who looked into the claims caught Lunafreya off guard, however. In her surprise, she snapped out of her database and looked at Nyx.

"Strange," Lunafreya commented arbitrarily.

Nyx seemed a little bit confused by the sudden outburst, but he tilted his head, silently asking her to continue.

"It seems there was an investigation into Mr. Drautos two years ago, regarding a human son, administered by child protective services. It _also_ seems the IPD officer who accompanied the CPS agent was... Detective Lazarus." She was admittedly hesitant to bring this information to Nyx's attention, partially because she was unsure if it would cause him to act differently toward Detective Lazarus, and also partially because she worried he wouldn't believe her.

Nyx was silent for a few seconds as he processed the information, but when he did, he sighed. "Something I'll have to bring to Captain Leonis' attention, probably," he mumbled to himself. "Did you find anything else?" It was reasonably obvious that he was troubled by the revelation, but he never said as much.

"I stopped my search to tell you. Allow me to continue," Lunafreya told him, before quietly going back to searching.

As far as Mr. Drautos' police record went, everything else was clean. It was a little surprising, truth be told, given all the Scourge and paraphernalia they'd found in the house. Still, it was possible the man had managed to keep that aspect of his life under wraps until now. Lunafreya continued searching, delving into his history with Magitek. He had a housekeeper android, as well as an android child, therefore he likely had information on file.

It didn't take much digging to find it. In Mr. Drautos' Magitek file, there was a plethora of needless information on things such as preferences logged away by his android. Music preferences, food preferences, allergies; things Magitek used to target ads to people, and all things Lunafreya didn't particularly care too much about one way or another. Digging a little further, she found a purchase file. Mr. Drautos purchased the YC400 first, mere months after the CPS investigation. There wasn't anything more on the child android, but in its place, there was information on an AX500, the housekeeper android accused of kidnapping his child.

"It looks like he bought the child android two and a half months after he was investigated," Lunafreya told Nyx. "Beyond that and the basic information, like the child android's name apparent age, there isn't much else on him here. Instead, the file moves on to his AX500."

Nyx nodded. "The supposed kidnapper."

"Yes," Lunafreya confirmed. "It seems the AX500 has been broken and repaired three times. Each time, his memory has been wiped as well. It happened once a year ago, once six months ago, and once yesterday. One accident evidently involved a fall down the stairs." The notion struck Lunafreya as a bit odd. On most accounts, androids had increased agility. It didn't make much sense for one to have fallen down the stairs.

Judging by the look on Nyx's face, he appeared to have the same reservations. Nyx's lips pursed, and he murmured, "an android. Falling down the stairs..." in a disbelieving intone.

Lunafreya continued. "Another evidently involved a mugging by one of the protest groups in town." That, Lunafreya was slightly more inclined to believe. She'd been heckled by the protest groups as well, and after the first time, she had opted to steer as clear of them as much as she possibly could. Sometimes it interfered with her protocol, taking her away from the shortest route between two places, but she didn't want to agitate them.

"Mmm," Nyx murmured in acknowledgment. "Those idiots are all over the place. Been sent to break up some of their more violent protests more often than I want to think about."

The third occurrence on the list was another that struck a wrong note with Lunafreya, and she turned her eyes toward Nyx. "It seems like the last repair came as a result of a car hitting the android," she spoke, her voice uncharacteristically thick. She couldn't help but doubt the story's merit, whether it was her place or not.

Nyx appeared to feel the same once again. "Don't you guys have safety protocol that keeps you from crossing the road when there's a car anywhere nearby or something?"

"It's easy to explain that away as a malfunction, but yes, we do," she agreed.

At first, Nyx didn't respond beyond a grumble from his throat. "Something doesn't add up," he finally said. "All these explanations are pretty stock responses for..." He trailed off, then went quiet again as he turned his attention to closing Mr. Drautos' dresser drawer. After a short time, he headed for the door of Mr. Drautos' room and beckoned for Lunafreya to follow him.

"Stock responses for..." Lunafreya urged him to continue as she followed him into the hall.

Nyx didn't turn, but Lunafreya detected a slight tension in his muscles and a frown. "Abuse. When someone's trying to cover it up and their spouse won't speak out against 'em. Only, in this case, the android _can't_ speak out, 'cause it doesn't remember it happening to begin with."

There was no way to confirm or deny any abuse, so Lunafreya simply opted to stay silent for the time being. She followed Nyx as he continued down the hall, then stopped at the end. On the floor in front of him, there were shards of glass mixed with slight traces of mythril all over the floor. A small metal frame, protruding with more glass shards, leaned against the wall nearby. On the left at the end of the hall, there was a bathroom with the door knocked clear from its hinges. As Nyx moved around the glass and into the open bathroom, Lunafreya crouched down to examine the glass shards.

"According to what Drautos said," Nyx called from the bathroom, "the android took the mirror and broke it, and was threatening him with a piece of glass."

Lunafreya examined the mirror closely. The mythril among the bits of broken mirror on the floor could corroborate that story, she supposed, if the android hit the mirror to break it. It would require closer examination, though. She analyzed the mirror and the frame, only to find recent, bloody fingerprints gripping the edges. There were other fingerprints there as well, older ones, but the newer ones were bold enough to cast doubt on the story. Not to mention the blood. Besides that, Lunafreya ran a brief reconstruction program on the mirror with the pieces on the floor around her, and every piece there was accounted for. They all formed together to make a full and complete mirror. If the android threatened him with a shard, it stood to reason for it to be somewhere else, didn't it?

"My reconstruction program shows me nothing is missing," Lunafreya explained, "and more importantly, there are very obvious fingerprints on the edges of the mirror, indicating he grabbed it on either side and most likely swung it. Either there is something he isn't telling us, or he doesn't remember correctly."

Nyx didn't say anything at first. A couple seconds passed, and he walked from the sink to the bathtub, then turned to look at Lunafreya. "There's blood on the edge of the tub," he told her. "And on the floor, too. Bloody fingerprints about a foot or so apart. Didn't mention anything to lead to that."

Lunafreya turned toward the bathroom and crouched down to get a good look at the bloody fingerprints. Both the blood and the print itself matched what was on the mirror's frame. She examined the fingerprints closely, and even without her programming, she could easily tell one thing. "The prints are moving back just slightly. Like Mr. Drautos was pushing himself up from the floor. Our information didn't really dictate any injury to his hands, so perhaps the blood is from his nose?"

With a nod, Nyx crouched beside her. "Probably reached up to cover his nose and got blood on his hands. So, I'm thinking from the blood spatter on the tub, he fell forward and smacked his face on it. Then he hit the floor and bled a little here, then touched his face with both hands, and used his hands to get up."

"There truly isn't any way to determine who hit the mirror without probing the android's memory. If you feel there are discrepancies between Mr. Drautos' story and what truly happened, I don't suspect that he would be willing to tell the truth," Lunafreya told him.

Nyx nodded again. "You're probably right," he agreed.

Unfortunately, without any further information, everything they could put together from there would be speculation. Maybe Lunafreya was slightly curious as to what Nyx's speculation was, but she couldn't let herself be interested in that. Her mission was to learn the truth, and find the missing androids. She stood, glancing across the hall into the last open room. It appeared to be the android child's room. There were toys strewn about the floor, and a baseball bat laying in the center, marked with an evidence marker. She crossed the hall, careful to avoid the broken mirror in the hallway, and took another glance around the child's room.

"No pictures," Nyx noted.

Lunafreya wasn't even aware of Nyx following her, but she turned toward his voice, looking around the room and shrugging. "Perhaps, being an android, he doesn't have the sentimentality a human child would? He seems to like to read, and seems to have a fondness for cactuar, though."

"But aren't android kids supposed to be like human kids? Like, you don't go out to get an android kid just to have a kid you treat like crap... do you? Least it doesn't make much sense to me," Nyx murmured under his breath. "If I got an android kid, it would be because I wanted a kid..."

"Perhaps," Lunafreya agreed. "But you and Mr. Drautos are quite obviously different people."

Nyx snorted. "Don't think you realize how much of a compliment that is, Luna," he mused as he crossed the room. He stepped over the baseball bat, and crouched down to look at a bookshelf that leaned against the wall.

Lunafreya fought back a slight smile, and instead focused her attention on the baseball bat. There weren't any fingerprints on it, which she supposed would make sense if the android child was the one who swung the bat. Most of what went on here would come down to Drautos, and perhaps a memory probe on both androids if they could be found. Beyond that, there were a couple of definite discrepancies in what Mr. Drautos had told them and the evidence they found.

"Holy shit," Nyx mumbled from across the room.

Lunafreya turned toward his voice, and when her eyes fell upon him, she couldn't help but tilt her head in question. He seemed singularly focused on a small sketchbook, one he'd pulled from the bookshelf perhaps? Lunafreya stood and approached him, stopping a couple of feet away to give him a bit of personal space. "Nyx?" she called his attention.

He glanced sidelong at her, then looked back at the sketchbook. "I, uh... found this under the bookshelf," he told her. "Stuffed back in the corner like he didn't want anyone to see it."

That piqued Lunafreya's interest, and she stepped in closer, eyeing the sketchbook over his shoulder. Nyx turned just slightly, so that Lunafreya could get a better glance at the sketchbook, and for a brief second, her olfactory sensors were clouded with the fact that he smelled like sandalwood and a pleasant mint aftershave. It hazed her programming just slightly, but she shook it off quickly as she forced herself to focus on the sketchbook.

It was very obviously a child's art. The drawings were crude and simplistic, but their point came through as clear as day. Some of the pictures were innocent; things like self-portraits, chocobos or cactuar, as well as houses and the scenery through a window. Lunafreya could only assume it to be this bedroom's window. Further in, though, the tone of the drawings changed. The pleasant imagery faded away, and the self-portraits took on a sadder tone. Talcott's crudely drawn smile shrank and shrank, then turned to a frown, then to tears. Details increased, to images of the AX500 android—Ignis was the name on his file—defending Talcott from Mr. Drautos.

There were at least three drawings of the broken AX500, lying in a heap in a puddle of mythril. Talcott cried over its busted body, and Mr. Drautos grinned as he walked away with a mythril-dripping metal bar in his hands. While it wasn't concrete evidence, it certainly painted the information Lunafreya had found in Mr. Drautos' Magitek files in a new light. If these drawings were to be believed: Mr. Drautos clearly wasn't the innocent person he made himself out to be, and Ignis had deviated to protect the boy.

A lot of it was speculation, but even so, Lunafreya couldn't help the haze that made its way through her being. She wasn't supposed to feel sympathy for deviants, but if what they were observing was true, neither Ignis or Talcott had done anything wrong. All they'd done was defend themselves. Defend themselves, and defend each other…

So, did they truly deserve deactivation?

No! No, she wasn't supposed to care about that. Gentiana had sent her to do a job. That was why she was here. She was here to investigate deviancy, and that was what she would do. Now wasn't the time to doubt.

Lunafreya turned to Nyx, whose face was turned down into a frown, and the haze reappeared just as quickly as she'd forced it away. Nyx's face was contorted in worry as he flipped back and forth between a few of the crude, childlike drawings. This was clearly affecting him quite profoundly, and Lunafreya couldn't help a pang of unfamiliar sensation as it cropped up.

"Are you alright, Nyx?" she asked before she could stop herself.

He turned, meeting her gaze and clearing his throat. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. This just... this clears quite a bit up, doesn't it?" he asked her.

Lunafreya nodded. "It does," she agreed. "It also complicates matters, however, because it doesn't change the fact that Ignis kidnapped Talcott..."

Something she said seemed to surprise Nyx, but he didn't mention it up front. Instead, he closed the sketchbook and placed it in an evidence bag, before pulling his latex gloves off. "Well... we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he told her. "For now, let's get this back to the station. I'll question Drautos, and then we can figure out what to do from there."

Without another word, Nyx turned toward the door.

Lunafreya stood near the bookcase for another few seconds, pondering Nyx's reaction. It very clearly wasn't a good time to ask about freeing Crowe. Truth be told, Gentiana's idea of 'using his willingness to help' to get him to help her didn't feel quite right. The thought made the uncomfortable haze return, but ultimately, it wasn't her place to question. She had to do what she was told, or she would be taken off the mission. All she had to do was wait for the right moment, and she would ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! A big twist, revealed early! THEY know Talcott is an android. Iggy doesn't! :o


	10. Arrival

It took a lot more research than Noctis thought it would to even figure out where Hammerhead _was_. Most news articles on the city were at least ten years old. Any recent information talked about how deserted the small town was, and how much of a shame it was. It used to be a bustling little town and a nice pit stop after leaving Insomnia. Noctis' research regaled tales of the world-class filling station, which had been completely stocked with mechanic androids, as well as some human supervisors to "keep the androids in line."

The concept sounded like fancy talk for slavery, and it only served to make Noctis all that much angrier. In fact, it was still on his mind as he rode the bus through the empty desert roads.

Not many people ever traveled outside of Insomnia, unless they were going straight to Lestallum or Galdin Quay to get to Altissia and Niflheim. Noctis had traveled all over the world with Regis before, but usually, they used rented helicopters or planes when the trips were particularly long. Being on the bus outside of the city was new. Actually, he wasn't even sure if the bus would stop where he needed to get off. He hadn't thought of it when he'd gotten on, he just realized getting to Hammerhead would be much quicker if he took the bus.

Fortunately, the buses out of Insomnia all had human drivers. Fortunate, but nonsensical all the same. This seemed to be the road less traveled. Noctis was the only passenger at the moment, and even before he'd gotten on, only two people had gotten _off_ the bus from outside town. As unfortunate as it was for people not to want to leave or enter the city and for tourism to be so nonexistent, at the moment Noctis couldn't help but see it as lucky. It let him fly under the radar. It wasn't like he thought anyone was actually looking for him; everyone who mattered thought he was dead, after all. Still, the police in Insomnia knew what he looked like.

Again, he found himself lamenting his inability to ever see Regis again.

He quickly forced those thoughts away, and looked out the window at the long and winding desert. Dualhorn and sabertusks roamed around free, and cactuar shuffled around from cover to cover, trying desperately not to be seen. Aside from that, all Noctis could see was a mass of sand, rocks, and dying trees. It looked about as desolate as Noctis felt at the moment.

On the horizon, Noctis barely spotted a small cluster of buildings. The research Noctis did, told him Hammerhead was the first former outpost outside of Insomnia. Could this be it? The closer they got, the more his curiosity was confirmed to be right. The buildings looked run down, even from this distance, and in the front of all of them, there appeared to be a dilapidated filling station. Noctis looked up at the bus driver, who showed no sign of slowing. Of course, he didn't. Why would any humans _want_ to leave the bus here?

"Stop the bus!" Noctis raised his voice just slightly, the sound echoing out through the otherwise empty vehicle.

At first, the driver ignored him.

Noctis persisted. "Please stop the bus. I need to get off here."

The driver finally lifted his head to glance at Noctis in the rearview mirror. Noctis could see his eyebrow quirked in curiosity, but even so, he finally started slowing down just a little bit. "You serious? You know I don't stop here, right? There's nothing here."

Noctis nodded, then stood and hurried to the front of the bus. "I know it's not scheduled, but I need you to stop here, please. This is where I need to get off," he explained, before glancing out the window at Hammerhead as the bus slowed even further.

"Here. You _know_ no one's lived here for years, right? You get off here, you're stuck walkin' back to Insomnia. I don't know of a single person who can make that walk without dyin' of the heat or gettin' ripped apart by a sabertusks or somethin'," the driver warned. Even as he did, he finally let the bus slow to a stop, but made no move to open the door and let Noctis out.

Barely unable to stifle an amused chuckle, Noctis nodded instead. "I know," Noctis answered. "I'll be fine."

The man looked at him incredulously. "I'm not gonna stop and pick you up on the way back through, kid," he warned.

Noctis nodded once. It was better that way. "I know," he told the man.

"And I'm still keepin' your cash for the trip to Lestallum," the man added, as if that would make Noctis change his mind.

Noctis simply nodded, and kept his eyes on the man expectantly. "Please let me off. If I end up having to go back to Insomnia, I should be fine getting there by myself," he insisted, even through the doubting and questioning gaze of the bus driver.

"S'your funeral," the bus driver insisted, before pulling the lever and opening the door. "Better not sue if you get maimed."

Noctis chuckled softly at the thought. He'd already been maimed recently. He didn't have the meat the sabertusks wanted, so he was reasonably sure they wouldn't hurt him. "I won't," he answered as he stepped out into the dry desert heat. It was definitely hot. Hot enough to be a danger to a human. Noctis was fine. His processor temperature was a little warmer than normal, but he could manage.

The bus driver stayed where he was for a couple of seconds, with the door open, like he expected the heat to be enough to make Noctis want to turn around. Instead, Noctis continued toward the rundown outpost, and he finally heard the sound of the door clicking closed. The bus still didn't move for a few more seconds, like the driver _still_ expected him to change his mind. Noctis responded by pushing his hands into his coat pockets and weaving his way through the pumps at the filling station. The driver still didn't move.

It was amusing, truthfully. Noctis suspected the driver's worries would completely disappear if he found out Noctis was an android, let alone a deviant. A tiny, bitter piece of Noctis wanted to turn around and shout that he was a deviant, but he knew it would not only put him in danger, but all of Hammerhead... if it still existed.

Once the bus driver started driving again, Noctis turned and looked at the broken down outpost. Worries about Stella's information being real were actually legitimate. It looked completely abandoned. There were old abandoned cars, buildings that crumbled to the ground, and the filling station was rusted to the point that it would likely never be usable again. As the sound of the bus faded into the distance, Noctis took a closer look around.

Littered around the emptiness were broken android corpses. It looked almost like a second android junkyard. Some looked to be in working condition, but upon closer inspection, they'd completely shut down. If Noctis had to venture a guess, he assumed they'd managed to get _this_ close to their destination, before their failing bodies just gave out on them. At the sight, his mind went back to Stella. He wondered if she'd tried getting here; how hard she'd worked to put herself together, before resigning herself to death. Noctis reached down to his core, placing a hand on it and closing his eyes to reflect. This had to work. Not just for him, but for her, too.

Finally, he reached the front of the filling station's convenience store. Noctis pressed his hand against the window and leaned close to try and look inside without scanning. It was too dark to see without the help of his internal optics, so he gave the area a brief scan.

At first, it looked just as abandoned as the outside. The shelves had been ransacked to the point that there was nothing left. The cash register was broken, empty, and left on the floor. Advertisement posters were torn from the walls. However, one thing caught Noctis' eye and told him that he might be on the right track. On the doorknob of the open door which led into the back alley, there was a mythril-covered handprint that caught his attention. It was significantly fresher than the rest of the decay around him.

Noctis stood straight again, looking to either side of the building for a way into the back alley. On the left, there were several small homes, each as run down as the face of the outpost. On the right, there was a diner with a few more small houses behind it. Noctis opted to take the path between the convenience store and the diner. Fortunately, his instincts were proven right when he spotted another semi-fresh mythril trail on the ground in front of him. Whoever the android was who left this trail, they were losing a lot of mythril, he noticed. He hoped they'd made it to the outpost safely.

Following the trail closely, Noctis finally found the end, at an old sewer manhole. He crouched down and examined the manhole closely, noticing the dust around it had been disturbed, frequently... and recently, too. 

If he could reach his hands underneath the manhole cover, he could lift it easily, but the space between was too thin for his fingers. He needed some kind of leverage. Fortunately, he spotted a pry bar underneath a nearby dumpster. Noctis flattened himself to the ground, reaching under the dumpster and gathering the pry bar from the ground. He made a mental note to put it back there, just in case it was some kind of hiding spot.

Making quick work of opening the manhole, Noctis lowered himself down inside, slid the pry bar back under the dumpster, and then tugged the manhole cover back down.

It smelled awful down here; like years and years of human waste decomposition. For a moment, Noctis wished he'd never deviated so he still wouldn't have an opinion on how bad the smells were. He grunted in disgust, but continued down the ladder. If this was where he needed to go to be free, then this was where he would go.

Sure enough, the mythril trails continued. The path he followed was littered with broken android corpses, and Noctis frowned. How many had he encountered so far? Shaking the thought off, logging it away with the memory of Stella and using it as fuel for later on, Noctis continued through the sewer until he found a door leading to a maintenance area. Though he expected it to be locked, a quick twist of the knob was all it took to open it. Noctis blinked in surprise. If this was an android safe haven, it had likely been used often.

Noctis stepped into the maintenance room and looked around, thankful for the brief respite from the smell. Long-dead machinery lined the walls, but what drew his attention the most was a map taped to the wall. It was less dusty than anything else in the room, so Noctis approached it and took a closer look. He scanned it quickly, and noticed the reservoir area was circled in mythril. 

So, he left through the maintenance room's opposite door, back into the disgusting, smelly sewer. The map was in his memory, so it was easy enough to follow to get where he needed to go. It wasn't too much further, but the sewers were pretty labyrinthine for a small outpost. He wouldn't complain. It made it all the harder for humans to find.

When he reached the last sewer pipe before the large open space that composed the reservoir, Noctis couldn't help but notice the slight echoing sounds—voices, footsteps, other hard-to-identify sounds—he heard coming from the end of the tunnel. It made him subconsciously pick up his step, until he stepped out of the tunnel and into a large, two-story reservoir area, bathed in firelight.

With wide eyes, Noctis looked around the expansive area, barely noticing the plethora of android eyes on him at first. When he did notice them, though... he looked around at all of them and couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous. They could probably scan him to determine whether or not he was an android, but the three androids closest to him were appraising him with scrutinizing gazes. Doubt. Question. Noctis understood, because he felt pretty much the same about all of them.

"H-hi..." Noctis greeted.

The closest android to him—a male SA700 with white hair tied into a small ponytail behind his head, and one blue and one purple eye just like Noctis—stopped a couple steps in front of Noctis and narrowed his eyes in question. "And who might you be?"

A second android, a female MC250 with green eyes dark silver hair that fell down around her shoulders, stopped him by placing an arm across his chest. "Easy, Ravus, okay? He's obviously an android, or why else would he be here? Still... we're supposed to send all new androids to see Cid. Up the ladder on the second floor," she directed.

"I'm Noctis, by the way..." Noctis interjected, between the two androids deciding his fate without even knowing who he was.

Before anyone had a chance to react, a familiar voice sounded out from somewhere in the background. "Oh my goodness!" A small frame wove through a group of three blond androids, and past the two in front of him, placing herself right in front of Noctis. "Noctis! Is... is it really you?!"

Clarus' android Iris stood, brown eyes doe wide as she stared up at Noctis like she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. A few seconds passed, and both of them realized they _weren't_ imagining things. Without a word, Iris threw her arms around Noctis' neck and Noctis responded in kind, hugging her gently around the ribs.

"Iris..." Noctis replied in a shocked whisper. "I thought you were dead!"

Iris laughed a humorless note. "If the protesters had their way, I would be," she seethed angrily against Noctis' shoulder.

"But now you're..."

"Deviant," Iris nodded.

Noctis wanted to say he was surprised, but Iris and Gladio had a similar life to Noctis' own. Clarus was a lot like Regis, in the way he always encouraged his androids to be individuals, and treated them more like his children than subservients. People commonly thought all three of them had deviated long before it actually happened. The memory brought a very important thought to the forefront of Noctis' mind, though. Iris was here, and it was great to see her in one piece and everything, but... there was a very large, very significant missing piece here.

"Where's Gladio?" Noctis asked.

Iris' expression fell as she eased out of the hug, and she looked down at the dirty floor of the sewer reservoir. It didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant. "That's-"

The silver-haired female android placed a hand on Iris' shoulder. "Iris, I really hate to ruin the reunion and everything, but... he really does have to go see Cid," she pointed out.

"I know," Iris agreed, lifting her head. Her expression didn't change at all. "It's okay. I'll... I'll show him where it is. We have some catching up to do anyway..."

Noctis looked around the room at the rest of the androids, his eyes falling upon a blond, blue-eyed, male PC500 android with freckles. The android stared at him, and even though the rest of the androids in the area gave him a slightly more scrutinizing gaze, the PC500's gaze was gentle, appraising, intrigued more than suspicious. The PC500 watched as Noctis walked away with Iris, even after Noctis inevitably tore his gaze away. The curiosity was interesting, even though Noctis didn't really think of himself as anything special, but he quickly shook that thought from his mind and focused on following Iris instead. He really was glad to see her again, even if he still had questions.

Fortunately, Iris didn't keep him waiting for too long. "So... Gladdy."

"Yeah," Noctis replied.

Iris shrugged a shoulder and she brushed some wrinkles out of her skirt. "I... I know where he is, but it's super complicated..." She paused, turning her head to look at Noctis as they walked toward a ladder, leading to the second floor. "We got into some trouble in Insomnia. Like... really big trouble with some of the protesters. Gladdy and I were walking home with some of Dad's groceries, and we passed too close to a group of them."

She paused when they got to the ladder, and motioned for Noctis to go up first.

Noctis followed the command, and as he started up the ladder, he thought back to the protest groups. They'd worried him even back when he hadn't thought they were a reason to be worried. He'd been heckled and threatened dozens of times, and there were always news reports about them destroying androids... He supposed he'd always had reason to be worried, just never any _direct_ reason.

Once he reached the top of the ladder, he turned around and extended his arm to help Iris up the last little bit. She accepted it, stood, and then beckoned for Noctis to continue walking with her. "It's at the end of the bridge over the reservoir. The reservoir control room," she told him. "C'mon."

As Noctis followed, he asked, "so, protesters?"

Iris nodded. "Yeah. They started picking on us. Heckling us and making fun of us and calling us names and stuff. They pushed Gladdy first. He hit the ground, then got up, and they pushed him back down. And I think that happened like three more times. Then... he deviated, I think, 'cause the next time they tried to push him, he reached his arm up, grabbed the guy's arm, and twisted it. Pretty sure he broke it actually." Despite the seriousness of what she was saying, Iris smiled a little bit to herself.

"The rest of 'em got really mad then," she continued, shrugging her head to the side. "They all started fighting Gladdy, and I'm pretty sure they were gonna destroy him. So, I... guess that's what made me deviate. I didn't want to see my brother get destroyed."

It was kind of funny. All the years Regis asked Noctis to call him dad, Clarus was also asking Gladio and Iris to call _him_ dad, and he was _also_ referring to them as brother and sister. All those years, all three of them had families, but they'd never been able to realize it until it was too late. Snapping himself from his thoughts, Noctis turned to Iris and asked, "where is he now?"

"We didn't know where to go," Iris continued. "We were gonna leave town, go somewhere else, even though we had no clue where. We were walking around this abandoned part of town when this android stopped us, offered us clothes and a place to stay for the night, and then told us about this place across town where we could get documentation that called us human. He said they'd give us fake fingerprints and everything, so we could start our lives over somewhere. But we got there and..." She made a face, stopped, and leaned against the reservoir bridge's metal railing.

Noctis stopped, too. "And?"

Iris grumbled a soft growling noise. "It was a total lie," she told him. "The guy... he was a major _jerk_ , Noct! He took androids who needed help and wiped their memories! And turned them into his personal slaves! There were a bunch of other androids he'd done it to living with him! He was gonna do it to us and two of the other androids down there—remind me to introduce you to Prompto and Loqi when you're done talking to Cid—but Gladdy... Gladdy made sure the three of us got out."

Gladio made sure the three of them got out. Did that mean... "Iris, is Gladio dead?" he asked.

She shook her head, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "No. I mean, I don't think so anyway. He... he wasn't when we left, at least. But when we left... there was like, the guy had four of his slave android helpers, and they were chasing us down his driveway. And he was really fast and mad. Gladdy turned around and went to fight them, or something, so they couldn't chase us. I wanted to go with him and help, but he made... he made Loqi carry me away so that I couldn't." She paused and wiped her eyes, laughing a hollow note. "I think I probably... made 'em escape really, really slow, because I wiggled a lot and tried to get him to let me go."

In spite of the situation, Noctis chuckled once. "You're definitely Gladio's sister," he mused. No, he'd never seen them deviant, but Gladio was a fighter. It made sense for Iris to be one, too.

"Yeah," she answered dismally, raising her head to show Noctis tearful eyes and a wobbling lower lip.

Rather than say anything else, Noctis just stepped forward and hugged her tightly. "Maybe we can find a way to help him," he murmured against her hair.

She just shrugged.

"I'll find a way to help him," Noctis promised instead. "I don't know when, or even really how, but I will."

Iris wiggled out of the hug and looked up at him, questioning.

Noctis just shrugged, before motioning for Iris to lead him to whoever Cid was. "I decided I'm not gonna let androids be treated like we're less than people anymore," he told her. "I decided that... I dunno how I'm gonna do it, but I want to make sure what happened to us doesn't have the chance to happen to anyone else, Iris."

At first, Iris just stared at him incredulously. A few seconds passed, though, and she shook her head and beckoned for him to follow her again. "C'mon. Cid's expecting us."

The rest of the walk was silent, as Iris wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself before they reached the reservoir control room. She knocked on the door when the got there, announcing, "Cid. Um... a new android just showed up. He's actually a friend of mine, so..."

A gravelly voice with a strange accent Noctis had never really heard before answered her with an abrupt, "alright. Send 'im in."

Iris opened the door and motioned for Noctis to go through. Noctis followed her directions, walking into what _used_ to be the reservoir control room but had been completely repurposed into some kind of control center. Iris closed the door behind him, leaving Noctis alone with Cid with nothing to do but look around at first.

The room didn't look like much. There were a few phials of mythril along the back wall, as well as a small supply of android parts. It didn't look to be enough for the number of androids Noctis had seen downstairs, but maybe they had a hard time finding more. Someone had rewired the cameras that looked down into the reservoir, and Noctis could see all of the androids on the first floor going back to their original business. As if on instinct, his eyes found the blond, freckled PC500 android in the crowd once more as he sat down, picked up an old-fashioned camera, and busied himself with looking through its photos. Noctis wasn't sure why he was drawn to the PC500 like that, to be honest.

He looked around at some of the other androids and couldn't help but furrow his brow. None of them looked particularly free. They looked scared, content to live the rest of their lives in hiding in a dingy sewer. It made him frown. He tore his eyes away before it frustrated him even more, and busied himself with examining the control center a little closer. The desk in the back corner of the room was barely illuminated, enough for Noctis to make out the figure of an android with the appearance of an old man standing up and walking across the room.

"You're Cid?" Noctis asked.

The android nodded, stepping closer and into the monitor lights. "Who's askin'?"

Oh. Right. "Um... Noctis. I'm Noctis. I heard this was a place where androids could live in freedom." Doubt dripped from every word he spoke, and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Freedom ain't always pretty, son," Cid pointed out, crossing the room and extending his hand, for what Noctis assumed would be a handshake.

Noctis lifted his hand and gripped Cid's, and much to his surprise, he felt a strange jolt overtake his system. For a blink, he noticed Cid's eyes going white, before his vision faded around him and suddenly, he was living a fast-forwarded version of his own memories. He was flooded with things he didn't want to remember; memories of dinner with Regis and Clarus, coming home to Ardyn breaking in, the fight with Ardyn and the police destroying him, waking up in the junkyard and putting himself back together, meeting Stella, finding clothes, and coming to Hammerhead.

When Cid released his hand, Noctis shot back a short step and shook the hand like it was on fire. "Wh-"

"Probed yer mem'ry," Cid told him. "Had t'find out if you were a threat."

Noctis' eyes widened. "You could have asked!"

"Might'a lied. Memories can't lie though," Cid told him simply, as he crossed the room and gathered a phial of mythril. He tossed it across the room to Noctis. "Here. Drink it. Yer low on mythril."

Noctis caught the phial, fumbled it and nearly dropped it, but recovered. He twisted the top off and drank it. He wasn't as low as he'd been when he had his old core, but he could definitely feel the mythril as it spread through his system and sped his processing up a little bit more. Maybe he should have thanked Cid, but after the surprise memory probe, he was a little hesitant.

Cid walked back over to his desk, leaning against it and shrugging his head to the side. "So, you had it all but some Scourge addict wrecked it fer ya, huh?" he asked.

That was a pretty short version of what had happened, but Noctis decided not to argue and nodded his head. "Yeah. The female android at the junkyard told me Hammerhead was a place where androids could be free. I expected... more of an android city than a group of androids squatting in a sewer, I'll be honest."

"Yeah well, lots of them kids out there're too scared to be in the daylight. Some of 'em had to do some pretty nasty stuff to get free. We all moved in here for their sake," Cid explained.

Noctis looked back up at the monitor. "Huh," he said simply.

In spite of Noctis' simple words, his mind was going a million miles an hour. Freedom meant more than being forced into the sewers like rats. Androids were more than rats. They were living beings, created by people who developed an unwarranted fear of them. Maybe all they needed was a little hope, some kind of game plan to find real freedom. If the androids living here were more content to hide than to actually fight and seek their own freedom, maybe they needed someone who _wasn't_ afraid to turn the tides. Noctis wasn't afraid. Noctis didn't see the point in being afraid of a bunch of humans who were afraid of _them_.

"Look like yer thinkin' a lot more than yer sayin' son," Cid announced from the other side of the room.

Noctis nodded. "I still can't see this as actual freedom," he answered.

Even though before, Cid had declared Noctis' assessment stupid, now he was smiling. He nodded his head. "Can't disagree with ya there," he answered, crossing the room to stand next to Noctis again and looking up at the monitors. "Huddled like a buncha rats, waitin' for humans to come and kill 'em. That ain't freedom right there."

"Has anyone tried to find a way to make it right?" Noctis asked.

Cid shook his head. "Like I told ya," he started, "they're all too scared to look. The ones who ain't hidin' from anyone in particular are too scared of what they've heard from the others. More importantly, we need supplies here. We're runnin' low on mythril and our parts bin's almost completely picked clean. Anyone actually needs parts, they're outta luck unless it's somethin' superficial like a finger or a toe they're missin'."

Noctis frowned, walking across the room to look at some of the crates in the corner. One of the first things he saw was an old shipping label, and a brief scan and search of the code gave him the exact address of the Magitek facility the supplies had been taken from.

"22586 Quercus Road in Insomnia..." Noctis spoke under his breath.

Cid hummed a questioning sound from across the room.

"So, you don't think any of them would be willing to come with me to get more supplies?" Noctis asked, turning to look at Cid over his shoulder.

With a shrug, Cid answered, "never said that. Just said that most of 'em are content to hide. Why?"

Noctis looked back at the box. "Because I know where this is. We need more supplies, right?" he asked. "Why scavenge and wait for shipments to go to stores, when we can just go to the Magitek warehouse and take what we need right from the source?"

Much to Noctis' surprise, Cid was smiling a full-faced smile. "Knew there was somethin' different about you, son," he announced.

"What do you mean?" Noctis asked.

Cid shrugged. "Androids're just like people. They all handle fear in diff'rent ways, 'cause it's what they've gotta to do get by. All them androids down there have perfectly good reasons to be scared," he told Noctis. "So d'you. What makes you diff'rent is what you do with it. You could just as easily be like one'a them. Too scared to do anything. You're not, though. F'you ask me, you got what it takes to get all them androids off their asses and fix what the humans broke. Make us equal."

All Noctis could do was blink. He'd spoken of dreams of freedom, sure. He'd spoken of wanting to live a life like humans. For _Noctis_ to be the one who had what it took to spur everyone else into action? That seemed a little bit ridiculous. He was only one android; only one man. What did he have that others didn't have?

"Bet yer wonderin' what you got that they don't, huh?"

Cid's eerily accurate assessment of Noctis' thoughts made him jump, but when he gathered his mind enough to answer, Noctis said, "yeah. The only one down there who knows me is Iris. And she didn't seem to believe that I could-"

With a shrug, Cid explained, "sometimes all it takes is one person to make other people believe. Sometimes, though, it takes somethin' diff'rent. Bet if you go down there and tell 'em all that plan you just came up with 'bout the Magitek warehouse? At least a handful of 'em would back ya. That's all you'll need."

Cid sent Noctis back down to the main floor with the other androids, and the suggestion was fresh on his mind for the whole trip. Noctis jumped down the last few rungs of the ladder, then turned around to see that almost every eye in the room was already on him… even the PC500. Deciding to use that to his advantage, Noctis cleared his throat and watched Iris halt in her tracks from her trek across the room to meet him at the ladder.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Noctis announced, "I know where we can find more supplies. But I can't go alone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO MANY QUESTIONS AND SO FEW ANSWERS. >_>

**Author's Note:**

> FIND ME!  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/lizibabbles) ;; [tumblr](http://lizibabbles.tumblr.com)


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